


that which can eternal lie

by vanitaslaughing



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Defying Fate, F/F, F/M, Pen Pals, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers, Worldbuilding, well nearly everyone.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-01 13:36:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 93,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12706068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanitaslaughing/pseuds/vanitaslaughing
Summary: Tasked with keeping safe a woman whose duty is to die before their new liege dies, they try to convince her to tread another path. Chance meetings, sharp commands, and suddenly Lunafreya Nox Fleuret finds another possibility ahead of her. The outrageously blasphemous repeat of what Solheim did.That, or Noctis dies trying.Between a rock and a hard place, the Oracle and the Accursed strike a deal.





	1. blind plummet to the void

**Author's Note:**

> written for nano 2017.

They were standing with their backs to the wall, and every single person in this room was aware of it. Uneasy glances exchanged between people all but betrayed the uneasy feeling that spread throughout the throne room in the Citadel, and it took her a fair share of willpower to not stand up and shower this man in the worst curses she could think of – not that there were many to begin with. As paragon of kingly composure, Regis Lucis Caelum barely betrayed his emotions, even as the Chancellor of Niflheim laid out the requirements for this peace.

Aulea Lucis Caelum was far from being composed as the meeting dissolved.

Somewhere in the Crown City, during this pleasant afternoon, was her son. Noctis had no idea what had transpired in this room, he had no idea that even though he was supposed to be the Chosen, Niflheim yet demanded things even after nearly killing him all these years ago. Those countless hours he had spent writing long letters to Lunafreya, putting them in a notebook the two of them forwarded after the fall of Tenebrae via a dog of Lunafreya’s. He had often said that Lunafreya was one of his closest friends, a person he would trust blindly.

And now they would have to summon him to the Citadel, demand he marry the Oracle for peace; a peace that traded his entire kingdom away safe for one city – not that he would ever rule it, were Regis to be believed.

She could almost hear the gears grinding in her husband’s head, the frown he wore as he left the room with Clarus, immediately chased by several of the council. She remained in her seat as she had ever; a pillar to lean on rather than an active supporter. The sunset in the distance was blazing red, not unlike the fires that had often haunted her son’s nightmares when he had been but a boy, and Aulea Lucis Caelum remained seated in her place even when only the Wall and the stars lit up the sky beyond these windows.

Eventually the doors once more opened, just as she was staring at the empty space above the throne. Once upon a time the Crystal had been placed there according to her father, up until Mors Lucis Caelum had taken it from its place to see to its safety, what with the war with Niflheim starting back when he had been crowned. Aulea had seen the Crystal, had seen the ominous light it shed, the way even Regis back during his prime, at the height of his powers, had apparently struggled to remain close to it for too long. Only the Chosen would be able to spend as much time as they pleased with it.

Neither Regis not Aulea had ever let Noctis too close to the Crystal outside of what was absolutely necessary.

The door to the throne room closed, slowly, and the steps that once had marched this floor confidently were now accompanied by a limp and a cane. It seemed so very long ago that Regis had bounded across the floors of the Citadel with an energy seemingly boundless enough to challenge the Six, so very long ago that he had left with his friends and but a promise to marry her once he returned. She turned her head to face him in the dim light of the Citadel’s throne room as it was illuminated by naught but the Wall outside.

“Perhaps it would be… wiser to send Noctis away and keep Lunafreya from Insomnia. Far from Niflheim’s reach.”

Aulea crossed her arms and sighed before finally standing up. “If you agree to these terms, there is no way you can make them meet in secret. They will have to marry as per Niflheim’s demands as they set you up for an obvious trap.”

“But perhaps when the trap springs, Noctis and Lunafreya will at least be away from the immediate carnage that will doubtlessly ensue.”

“That is assuming the empire does not bring her here with them for the inevitable treaty signing we will have to hold.”

“I can ensure she does not come here.”

“Reg...”

Sending Noctis out of the Crown City was already going to be a provocation. It did not help that none of the people that could accompany him had never left Insomnia themselves – it was an ironic echo of the journey Regis had set out to so many years ago, on the breaking eves of war within the Lucian border, with naught but a promise to her and his father on the morning he left. He’d been gone for years, and Aulea had waited beside the rapidly ageing king. When Regis returned Galahd had been lost to Niflheim, Mors was on his death bed, and there were hundreds of refugees scattered across the Lucian countryside. Regis had made it a point to get as many of them to enlist in the Kingsglaive he would found near immediately after his ascension – a force compromised of Galahd's refugees with a certain knack for fighting. It ensured as many of these displaced people would be relocated into Insomnia, under the veil of the Wall, brought to safety after seeing the ravages of war.

It worked, though nowhere near as flawlessly as he assumed it would. And that was why Aulea narrowed her eyes as she stopped on the stairs when Regis explained what he was thinking.

She did not entirely trust the Glaive. She knew that even if they betrayed them she could not be mad. But Regis did not share her doubts – or he never acknowledged them. That was why she took careful note of his plans, of the solo mission he would be sending one of the few she actually trusted on.

Perhaps it would be best to enter the stage as second player. And for that, she needed Crowe Altius.

* * *

Lunafreya arrived in Insomnia without a scratch on her, but it definitely caused quite the argument between the higher ups. Aulea was fairly certain she had heard one of the upper Crownsguard getting reprimanded by Cor Leonis for having muttered something about failure refugees messing up the simplest search and escort missions in all of Lucis as she leaned against the room’s door. So far, so good – if Lunafreya was here it meant that either her plan had gone off without a hitch or Crowe Altius would be found dead in the countryside once Titus Drautos saw to solving the puzzle of how Tenebrae’s princess wound up in Insomnia.

She had let Regis meet with Lunafreya on his own. Aulea had not gone to Tenebrae back when Noctis required the Oracle’s powers; she had ever remained in Insomnia. A person to oversee the kingdom while its king was gone; a person to quell immediate panic with her presence until information from the scene became clearer. Perhaps she had been a great paragon of queenly composure after all, years in the past, as they waited for the conflicting news of Tenebrae to finally make sense. It wasn’t until Regis himself, with Noctis in his arms, had stood in the throne room again that they had finally gotten clear news. His account finally told the truth, and Aulea had remained as still as she had ever been. A quiet strength as opposed to Clarus’ guidance; soothing where Cid had been explosive; reliable in the Crown City just as Weskham was out in the field; a breeze where Cor built up to be a hurricane. Regis’ group of supporters had ever been a jolly band of mostly misfits, and Aulea was no exception from the rule. People perceived her as odd most of the times, one of the reasons why the prince wound up to be such a strange young man himself.

They had seen Noctis and his friends off just the day before – the way he had quickly made his way from the throne room, how he seemed almost impatient to leave the city. And Aulea understood him all too well; her son would leave where she had ever stayed behind. She knew that there was a fair chance that Regis would never make it through the treaty signing; Niflheim never played fair. Regis and Clarus were themselves dead men walking as far as they were concerned – they had sent Cor and most of the Crownsguard out of the city, or at least close to the borders. They were preparing for the worst case scenario.

And amidst that coming storm stood Lunafreya, barely more than the gods’ plaything at this point. She and Noctis both were, and it filled Aulea with a rising surge of anger. But for the time being she would have to wait and see how Crowe Altius’ secret second mission went, whether the woman had failed or not.

She had seemed like the capable sort, the sort of woman that could execute orders exceedingly well if working on her own. There were plenty of people in the Kingsglaive who would have failed the tasks that Aulea had given Crowe, but she had put her trust in the woman.

Many people called the queen a ghost haunting the halls; a woman of barely any presence. There were select people who recognised her when she was not on official duty, something that Aulea often used to quite literally haunt the halls of the Citadel. She had been a sickly child, and many physicians had called it a miracle that she had lived through giving birth and an infection but two years later. The fact that she was still alive, stronger for it in fact, was a miracle just as Noctis’ survival that dreadful night the daemon had struck had been. If she had half as crude a humour as Cid Sophiar had she would have joked about Noctis definitely getting that from his mother, but she was first and foremost grateful that the child had lived. Lived through an attempt on his life by a daemon, lived through the fall of Tenebrae. Noctis had come out a sweet child, one who barely looked haunted by actual ghosts.

Lunafreya on the other hand looked like she had seen her fair share of terrible things. Though a gentle smile sat on her lips as she approached the queen, Aulea clearly saw something in these eyes that did not belong there. Some underlying pain, a fear perhaps – knowledge of things that should not be known. She was a polite woman, though clearly disappointed that Noctis was not in the city. She had written just as many, if not more letters to him sometimes. Aulea had never gotten to read any of them, for Noctis had hoarded these letters almost like a dragon kept its gold. A friendship that was so precious to Noctis that he was willing to even marry the woman for the peace that was promised Lucis. Perhaps it would never quite be a rousing romance that swept through the pages of history, just about as Regis and Aulea’s had been, but something that either side could rely on. Someone to lean on.

It would never be, given that the Chosen’s fate was to die for the world, and if Lunafreya lived through whatever it was that the Oracle had to do to support the Chosen then she would be left all on her own. Just as Aulea would be once the day of the treaty signing came and went, for Regis was so certain he would not live through it that he had begun to avoid Aulea. Perhaps to lessen the pain.

It was a look of mutual understanding that Lunafreya and Aulea shared, a pleasant afternoon drinking tea together as Nyx Ulric stood in the background. There wasn’t any better choice for bodyguard in all of the Glaive; Ulric was a dependable and honourable man.

It wasn’t until Titus Drautos knocked on the door and requested Nyx that Lunafreya started talking. Once the men of the Glaive were gone, Aulea’s curiosity had been perked, but the young Oracle stirred her tea before sighing deeply.

“I had so many things to tell you after all these letters in which Noctis described you and your duties. It reminded me of my own mother, a bittersweet sting in the middle of these lines that I awaited as if I were starved and about to receive food. But now that I am here, I find myself at a loss for words. But… Thank you, thank you for having me here despite you not knowing me, and me not knowing you.”

There had been so many little things that Noctis had mentioned. Luna’s favourite kind of tea – fruity, but not too sweet; her favourite kinds of dresses, the fact that she was growing an entire garden of sylleblossoms back in Tenebrae. One of the few pleasures the Empire and her duties let her fave along with her dogs. The fact that Lunafreya had come to Lucis without her dogs had startled the queen, truth be told. Those dogs, always ferrying back and forth between Tenebrae and Insomnia, carrying letters written by children, teenagers, young adults.

It was later that evening, when Lunafreya had returned to her quarters somewhere in the city with the rest of the imperial envoy, that news of Crowe Altius being declared dead on a mission that Aulea knew her fears had not been baseless. They had never been baseless, and there was no way in hell that she could tell Regis now, in the middle of the culmination of a hundred years of war on Lucian soil.

The following evening she watched, almost worriedly, as Emperor Aldercapt approached her husband on the roof. She noticed how Nyx Ulric fumbled in his pockets and handed Lunafreya the hairpin that Regis had given Crowe when she set out. Aulea Lucis Caelum saw the amused glint in Chancellor Izunia’s eyes – a glint that looked like it had flashed bright yellow for a split second. If he had turned into a daemon and killed all of them on this very roof, she wouldn’t have been surprised. But the chancellor remained the chancellor; a man leaning against the rails as he sipped his champagne with a slight smirk. He even went as far as smiling into her general direction once he noticed that she was staring at him, and Aulea immediately turned back to staring into her own glass.

“He’s quite the character, is he not?”

“I don’t like him the slightest. That grin is infuriating, but… something… something about him rings my alarms, Clarus.”

The Shield of the King had been sitting beside her for almost the entire evening. The seat next to her was empty, as Regis tended to pace when he was nervous; and this small party of all officials almost required him to constantly move back and forth between Niff and Lucian commanders and what not. Clarus and Aulea knew better than to interrupt the king whenever he paced.

Whatever conversation Nyx Ulric and Lunafreya Nox Fleuret were having, it was making the woman smile. Even the sombre-looking Nyx Ulric looked like he was at the very least having fun, despite clear orders that he was to be her shadow rather than her companion.

“Only the Chancellor?”

“Only the Chancellor.”

“Mhm. Most officials would ring my alarm bells, but I frankly never understood how you passed your judgement. Not that it had ever failed you, your Majesty.”

She was almost tempted to ask him to drop the titles, but they were in an official situation. Even knowing each other since childhood now required him to call her by her title – once upon a time it had been her calling him Lord Clarus whenever she addressed him, and now it was him calling her Majesty. So many things had changed. So many things would change.

“It certainly failed me in regards to your children.”

A long silence drowned the table after that. Gladiolus Amicitia was out on the road with Noctis. Clarus was fairly certain that he would never see his son again. And Iris Amicitia was at home, together with the family servants. A house meant for four people of the same family, but now all that reigned there was silence – the mother long dead, the brother out of the city, and the father sleeping at the Citadel as his job sometimes demanded. She almost wanted to make Clarus text his daughter, but when she saw later that night that he was indeed on the phone, quite clearly trying to think of something to write to his daughter, she decided better of it.

She had said her farewells to Noctis. Regis had done it. The Scientias had parted with a smile and a nod. It seemed ironic that now Clarus Amicitia, normally the paragon of fatherly love, now failed to find the words to his daughter. Gladiolus had left without even saying anything to his father.

Lunafreya slipped back up the to the roof, asking Nyx Ulric to give her half an hour up there for some fresh air and that he was released for the night. The Glaive left.

She never came back from that roof.

* * *

“A question, if I may.”

Surprisingly enough, the Lucians had not installed machinery to spy on them. The Niffs would have found them easily to begin with, but it remained a surprise nonetheless. Emperor Aldercapt made some sort of non-committal noise, which Chancellor Izunia clearly understood as permission to ask.

“Is there something we ought to do with the queen? Letting our highly esteemed High Commander slaughter the king is one thing, and the hunt for the crown prince will begin as soon as we are done here, but what about that woman?”

Aldercapt had walked up to the window and stared out. Insomnia shone in the night just as Gralea did, with the exception of the Wall softly glimmering across the sky. He narrowed his eyes, and it took Ardyn Izunia a fair share of self-restraint to not roll his eyes at the needless dramatic build-up. Then again Aldercapt had always liked it, which made it all the more annoying to deal with.

“I have given the order to let her live unless she gives violent resistance. Having the queen standing still might make the rest of Lucis easier to subjugate. Any rebellion will focus on freeing her; it might make catching her brat easier.” He turned around.

Noctis Lucis Caelum was a hot-headed young man, inevitably to be guided by the Oracle right into the hands of destiny – and therefore right into Ardyn’s hands. Aldercapt did not know that. Nobody knew, but the imperial chancellor nodded slowly for yet another time.

“I see. You intend to remain yet another step ahead like the tactician you are.”

* * *

It had been a game of chess from the very beginning. One that Aldercapt was going to win from the very beginning because he had somehow managed to get several of his pawns across the field while Regis looked away for but a split second. The council was either dead or dying, and very few remained standing. They could but watch the Emperor as he slowly strode out of the room with the Chancellor, gunfire and the telltale shattering sound of something bounding off the magical shield that covered them being the only sounds that rang through the room. Finally the noise outside hit them, and she could hear Regis grind his teeth.

The Glaive had gone to recover Lunafreya. The council was locked into this room. The Crownsguard was stationed further away than anything else. The Border Guard was most likely engaging the imperial soldiers as they made their way to the Crystal and near the Citadel. Insomnia was turning into a war zone just as Regis had predicted; the very reason he wanted Noctis and Lunafreya out of Insomnia in the first place. The Oracle was going to get herself into trouble if she and the Glaive returned at the most inopportune moment.

Still, the queen remained quiet, behind her husband, slinging out the occasional spell.

It wasn’t until Regis offered the remaining people an opportunity to flee that she felt a certain sense of dread at long last. Clarus said he belonged to Regis’ side, and Aulea shook her head with a stern glare the moment both of them turned to look at her.

“If he belongs to your side, then I do doubly so.”

She had never considered ‘till death do us part’ to be like this. She had feared that Regis would wind up like his father, slowly wilting away. She had watched it in motion, how weak he had gotten compared to the man who had strode out of the throne room with his friends on a mission to get to Altissia and get Accordo’s help. But as they watched General Glauca drop in through the window, Aulea realised that this was a better way to die for Regis than being unable to do anything but wait, wait until they took him and until they would take Noctis.

She hated it, really, but perhaps…

Her train of thought was prematurely stopped in its tracks as she saw Clarus lose a fight for the first time since she had gotten to know the man – a fight he lost and immediately died for it. The shield she had been holding up herself shattered as she stared up at the man feebly twitching with his own sword pinning him to the wall. Aulea had seen it coming, she had known all along, but this… this was gruesome, even for a Shield of the King.

It was that moment that she realised that Ravus Nox Fleuret was still standing in here, just out of the way. Regis would never hurt one of the dead Oracle’s children, but that seething look Ravus shot him as the king went up against the General all but confirmed what Lunafreya had said. Those twelve years had changed her brother – Aulea had only met Ravus once back when he had been a child. A child just about as sweet as Noctis had been, a promising beginning for who would rule Tenebrae one day. Perhaps too sweet, too dutiful.

When everything burned around him he had burned with them, and Ravus’ icy glare did not let up even when a grunt of pain reminded Aulea that her husband was fighting Niflheim’s High Commander, a man without a first name that was only known as General Glauca. The blood splatters, the ring hitting the ground and rolling away – that cursed ring. She hated it, hated it more than she had ever hated the empire. This was what threatened her family, this tiny unassuming thing had all but tortured Regis over the years; this accursed ring had taken her father-in-law and made her mother-in-law die from grief even before the previous king died. It had taken an entire bloodline, it would have continued if Noctis had not ended up being the Chosen; a prince who would never rule and purge the Scourge in blood most likely.

Whatever Ravus said she didn’t hear it through the loud pounding of her heart. Steps were coming closer, she saw Nyx Ulric burst in none the worse for wear, and the flash of white behind him meant that Lunafreya Nox Fleuret was alive and well – and the next thing she saw was Ravus on the ground, squirming in pain as his arm burst into flame, followed near immediately by Nyx Ulric lunging forward, warping straight into Glauca, and distracting the man.

She turned to stare up at the wall again. It was only then that she remembered that Clarus’ daughter Iris was still in the city, in an empty house that would remain empty now that both her parents were dead and her brother soon to be declared a fugitive. Aulea prayed that Clarus had the same foresight as Regis and had made certain to give the family’s servants the order to get Iris out and somewhere safe; clearly the Niffs would want to make certain no network remained for Noctis to fall back upon, and Iris would definitely be considered part of this network. She continued staring up that wall even when Regis and Lunafreya grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into a pathway she had nearly forgotten about. Nyx Ulric barely made it in as the doors closed, effectively buying them a few minutes before Glauca would catch up.

At the very least the Citadel was built sturdily, over hundreds and thousands of years as it housed the Crystal and the royal bloodline without fail.

They all knew what would come next. Regis had specifically prepared Aulea for that moment, although he had said that Titus Drautos would be around to keep her safe after the fact – the man was most likely waiting somewhere else or helping people. He had to be. Instead it were Nyx Ulric and the Oracle that were here with the rulers of Lucis, and Regis looked more defeated than he had ever until Nyx asked him if he was sacrificing Lucian sons to keep his own safe. Aulea herself ignored most of the conversation – she had had hers with Regis the night before, she had cried her fair share by now. As long as Noctis did as his father had asked him to, to never turn back once he set out, he would be able to slip past the empire’s grasp for a while before they caught up to him.

Noctis would be safe.

Noctis would be safe.

It was her mad mantra as she led Nyx and Lunafreya, it was her mad mantra when Regis fell behind and the cracking of a wall materialising sounded between him and Lunafreya as she tried to get back to his side.

Noctis would be safe.

Noctis… would be… safe.

A sob escaped Lunafreya Nox Fleuret. Nyx Ulric was audibly grinding his teeth before letting out a growl of frustration, almost leaping into the magic shield that remained even though its creator was shoved to the ground, long dead before he even hit it. Aulea Lucis Caelum on the other hand, the only person in here who had known this would happen from the very beginning, turned her back to the scene. Everything she could have done would have only gotten her killed together with Clarus and Regis, and part of her really wanted to die with them – but Regis had asked her to stay alive if she could. A simple request, yet the hardest thing that he could have ever asked of her. She would have died for him. Would have died for Noctis, for Lucis at large. She would have gone with Emperor Aldercapt if only it ensured that he and her son lived, but she would never get this.

Lunafreya’s hand was curled around the Ring of the Lucii, and when she forced Nyx to come with her and the queen, she tried handing it to Aulea.

Once they had reached the car, all Aulea did was shake her head.

“No, Lunafreya. He… he entrusted it to you.”

“But you are the ruler of this country, surely--”

Even in the back of the car, Aulea refused. She felt out of the place, the queen of a fallen country, a widow of the war like so many. Finally she understood, truly understood why the Galahdians had always looked at her like she was some sort of poisoned meat, green and glowing in the dark. It never would excuse their actions, it never would – Nyx Ulric returned to the car, with Lunafreya simply stating that he had lost his magic.

It died with Regis, of course. Aulea had felt it, after so many years of living with it. It was a security blanket that vanished, a warm and gentle reminder that whatever happened he would be here. He wasn’t here. Never would be here again.

Noctis would be safe.

Noctis… safe. Safe, and far away from Insomnia. Too far away. If she lived as Regis had asked her to, perhaps she could hold him again one more time. Tell him what his father told her. Tell him everything. Write a long letter if she couldn’t say things, just as Lunafreya had all these years.

Noctis would be safe. Noctis would be safe.

It was all she could think about as they continued their way through the crown city as it burned. She could almost feel the accursed ring that Lunafreya was now carrying. They were hunting her, hunting the ring. As if taking the Crystal and the king’s life wasn’t already enough.

It had all gone to plan, outside of the city. Which meant as long as Lunafreya got out, she would not be completely on her own. If Lunafreya got out, she could find Noctis. Whatever the beckon of destiny would do to them, they would have each other. Perhaps until the end; just as Noctis had his friends. Aulea truly hoped that Nyx Ulric would stick to the orders of a dead king. That he would keep Lunafreya safe, and see her to Altissia – or hopefully even wherever the tide of destiny carried her. Noctis would be safe; Lunafreya could be safe as well if it all went as Regis and she had planned.

* * *

For hearth and home.

Home was something people were willing to die for, she realised. The Kingsglaive that betrayed them all hated the choice to sell out their homes for peace. Nyx Ulric had not sold them out, even though his home had been lost so many years ago. She had speculated many things, but having heard that Regis had saved his life and therefore gotten his undying loyalty after all those years nearly broke her heart when the man toppled over. They chased Lunafreya for the ring, and ignored the queen. The queen who sat down beside the wounded Glaive, trying to see if she could help the man somehow.

“’fraid I… can’t keep her safe… after all...”

People who died for home – people who died out of their own stupidity. Ravus had not died; the Glaive whose name Aulea had forgotten died, even as Lunafreya grabbed his arm to pry the Ring of the Lucii off his hands. She then hurried back downstairs, back to Nyx and Aulea.

Titus Drautos appeared at long last, her supposed protector. Indeed he offered her a hand and Nyx and Lunafreya his car so they could flee the city. Tires screeched behind them, and for but a moment she assumed it were more Niffs. Drautos was going to keep her safe, Regis had promised. She saw the day Noctis left before her eyes again. How he waved, how he said that his father was in Drautos’ hands.

A car shot into her sight, blurry as it was. She had not even noticed she had begun crying.

A car shot straight into Drautos. For hearth and home.

For hearth and home.

The Oracle bent over the wheezing man of the Kingsglaive. He had been shot, he had been limping up to earlier. But one thing that the Oracle could do, even as the car Libertus Ostium had driven straight into Titus Drautos was lifted up and tossed away like it was naught but a toy car, was healing. She could expunge early stages of the Scourge. She could knit flesh back together. So she leaned over the wheezing man, pressed her forehead against his with a sigh. Lunafreya’s words were gentle, barely more than a whisper.

“Blessed stars of life and light, what torn asunder again unite...”

Aulea’s eyes were locked onto Titus Drautos emerging, slowly changing into Niflheim’s General Glauca. The very man she had witnessed murdering her husband but an hour ago. The very man who had butchered the late Oracle Sylva in front of her son. Regis had warned her. Warned her to not let anger take over her judgement. A judgement Clarus had trusted, a judgement that Regis had trusted. A judgement she had hopefully passed on to her son so he would not make the same mistakes as his parents. Lunafreya had dropped the ring beside her to heal Nyx. After assigning him to be her quiet protector it was quite clear that he had broken orders Drautos had given him – Nyx Ulric had looked, listened and thought around the Oracle, and deemed her worthy even without any orders given by his liege. Thus, as the traitor approached as cold but gentle light finally shimmered on Lunafreya’s hands, there was but one thing Aulea could do. She’d seen the consequences twice this night, but what else was there to do with her magic severed, lying dead as Regis did back in the Citadel?

For hearth and home. Murdering for hearth and home.

In but a split moment she had snatched up the ring, that accursed little thing that had eaten up Mors and all those before him, what had burdened Regis from the second he put it on, what would burden Noctis once it reached his hands. With naught but her heart beating louder than it had ever before, she slipped it on.

Time slowed down. The lights went out. It looked like something she had seen in her nightmares as child, for darkness meant danger. No light meant daemons, and near every child of Insomnia feared the dark most. Insomnia was safe – what if the safety net disappeared, vanished as it had but an hour ago, leaving nothing but the dark and the daemons, ready to pounce on unassuming people?

She took a deep breath. This was for her hearth and home; a hearth that had flickered out with Regis’ life, a home she had lost as it was ravaged by Niflheim’s troops. Her son was still out there, but she sincerely doubted that she would have ever seen him again. How the MTs had ignored her, how Glauca had not attacked her earlier when she had been staring up at Clarus’ twitching body, it all told a story, betrayed a plan that the Niffs most likely thought clever.

Keeping the widowed Queen Aulea Lucis Caelum in Insomnia ensured that rebellion would rise to free her, to reunite her with her son and let Lucis prepare for a proper retaliation. It was a trap to be laid out for Noctis, a means to gain the Ring of the Lucii, the Crystal and the crown prince all in one swoop.

“Kings of Lucis… heed my plea.”

Regis had never talked about the ring; as far as he was concerned it was but another part of his body. He could take it off, of course, but he rarely ever did so. The first time he had slipped it on, after his official coronation following Mors’ death, he had blinked and then shaken his head. There were no records of other people putting on the fabled Ring of the Lucii, it had ever been in the hands of the royal family of Lucis. When she was younger, she had been curious about what would happen if one slipped on this ring. Wearing it made one the ruler of Lucis, even more than any titles bequeathed or crowns worn; with the ring came the only identifiers of royalty – magic, and the cost of magic.

Finally, a light. Barely comprehensible forms that only were vaguely familiar; the Old Wall lacking a physical consistence, an echo, a reflection that still moved on its own despite no longer being corporeal. She could only make out thirteen of them clearly, each adorned with another weapon, but there was a faint shimmer in the darkness around them that indicated that there were more. One hundred and thirteen in total, should Regis have made it here yet, somewhere amongst the sea of ancient magic and amongst his ancestors. They were waiting for something, and she remembered Ravus’ collapsing to the ground but a split moment after putting on the ring. Whatever was happening here, it was contained within a familiar magic, thousandfold increased. She took a deep breath.

“The Wall is fallen; the Crystal has been taken from Insomnia, from Lucis. Blood of your blood has been slaughtered, and the future you fought for is in jeopardy.”

The Lucii were but a reflection, she did not expect to hear a voice. Muffled though it was, strangely twisted as if the magic of the Crystal yet ate up these men and women long dead, it was clear enough for her to understand. “What happens here is of little relevance. State your business.”

So much had happened in so short a time. This was more to take in than even the reeling realisation that Regis was that, that Clarus was dead. Her son was now a fugitive, Niflheim’s enemy number one. A danger to be taken out just as his father had been taken out. More than Titus Drautos, the man everyone in the Citadel had trusted, being General Glauca; not only murderer of the Oracle and the Scourge of Tenebrae but also the death by steel’s swift descend of the Lucian king now. All Aulea did was fold her hands and close her eyes, praying that she would not start crying before these spirits of old, fuelled by a magic most arcane.

“I am the third mortal to come before you this eve, yet another annoyance to be thwarted as you have done two times before – have witnessed such. Yet, I would ask of you what you might call… impudence. I care not for the price you would ask of me. But the Ring of the Lucii and the Oracle are in danger. Mortal danger. The very man who has the blood of one of yours on his hands is hunting both the ring and the Oracle. I would ensure that the ring and the Oracle both make it out of the city, to begin their long and arduous path towards the King of Light that one day the future you keep safe comes, truly comes. Whatever it takes, I am willing to pay the price; whatever it takes.”

The ring burned, a scathing hot sensation. Regis had often described it as cold weight, just an extension of his body. Black and cold, not living the slightest. But what Aulea felt blooming in her body was a scathing hot pain, bright red and hissing as if it lived its own life. Her folded hands came apart and she clutched her chest with the hand that bore the ring now. She opened her eyes, not even looking at her hand which she knew was on the verge of catching fire – instead she turned her gaze upwards, at the unmoving reflections that rippled as she sat there.

“I understand. I mean not to barter for my life; in the grand design it means nothing. Has never meant anything compared to my beloved husband and son. Vanguards of peace and hope, and I was but… blessed enough to be at their sides. But please, I beg you consider the Chosen. Without the ring and Oracle to empower and guide him, what chance does he stand against dark eternal?”

The burning sensation ceased. Whatever they were saying now, she did not understand, but a voice amongst the noise sounded familiar. Twisted as it was, she understood that whatever the Lucii were saying, Regis was arguing for her case. For their son’s inevitable future and for Lunafreya’s life.

Eventually they fell silent again, and Aulea made ready to remove the ring and accept her punishment. It had not sounded like they had reached a conclusion they all agreed on.

“Very well.”

She looked up in surprise.

“You are of our mind, if not of our blood. Yet yours runs through one of ours; we shall lend you our power until dawn breaks. But know it comes with the price you suggested – your life.”

Regis had told her to live, not throw her life away like this. Niflheim had most likely a use for her; she was in no immediate danger. But the Oracle and the Glaive were, in order for Aulea’s little scheme to succeed she needed at least Lunafreya out of the city alive and in one piece. Getting Nyx Ulric out would be a nice second bonus. Thus, she nodded and looked up with an almost serene smile.

“Thank you.”

* * *

“Blessed stars of life and light, what torn asunder again unite...”

This man had risked life and limb for her. Not because she was the Oracle and he needed healing – for once it was because of her royal lineage, something that she had not heard in ages. He called her ‘princess’ instead of Oracle; also something that had ceased nearly day her mother died and she let go of King Regis’ hand in Tenebrae to stay with her brother.

She had walked back to him, once the king and her friend had fled far enough. She walked back, almost completely unobstructed and mostly ignored, and sat down next to her brother. There was dry blood on his face, and his expression was mostly vacant. But Luna knew her brother better than any other person; he was not trembling out of shock. He trembled in grief, but that was often accompanied by tears, hot and silent. No, what was blazing in Ravus’ eyes was silent fury this time, burning as bright as the fires around them, even brighter once they died down. That day people stopped calling her princess, and started calling her by the duty she would take over. She had always been ready to become Oracle. It was an honour, she said, a duty she would gladly fulfill.

Perhaps saving Nyx Ulric’s life was one of these things that fell under duty. For now, she was fairly content with merely saving him as a thanks for him saving her.

It was only when he opened his eyes again that she saw the glint of steel. General Glauca, the very man that had murdered King Regis after she finally got to see the man again after twelve years under constant imperial watch. She squeezed her eyes shut; if this was how it would end, then so be it.

Then, a flash of light. The sound of a weapon hitting a magical shield, something that she had now heard plenty of times in a very short time alone. She opened her eyes again, only to see Queen Aulea swat General Glauca away like a bothersome gnat. She dismissed the shield she had conjured up to block the blow, a shimmering arc she traced through the air before sending a blast of thunder after the General.

The queen breathed out, then went to dust off her sleeves before stopping mid action and pulling the Ring of the Lucii off her finger.

“You are unharmed? Good.” She handed the ring over to Luna. “Take it, Lunafreya, and see it to Noctis. It is his by birthright, just as the Crystal should have been. Nyx Ulric.”

The Glaive stood up and bowed to the queen, perhaps a little too fast. Luna had not been able to properly patch him up; bullet wounds usually took a little more effort than others because of how small they were. At least he would no longer bleed.

The man who had crashed his car into General Glauca also approached, almost slowly, apologetically. She remembered seeing that face on the display earlier; a man suspected for at least supporting a terrorist ring that had instigated the explosions outside of the Citadel. The queen merely beckoned the man over.

“I believe my husband has given you the order already, but I shall repeat it – Nyx Ulric, see Lunafreya out of Insomnia and to Altissia safely. Libertus Ostium.” The second man now bowed to the queen, clearly nervous. “Take the car. Get them out of here. That is your final order; after that you are free to leave or turn yourself in as you see fit. Those are your orders. Your final orders. This is the final time the Kingsglaive will get deployed. Do you understand your missions?”

Both men nodded, and the queen shot them a smile. Somewhere behind them General Glauca was starting to move again, and now it was the queen who bowed, this time at Luna.

“I would have loved to share another cup of tea with you, in a less tense situation, perhaps with Noctis joining us. But please, see the Ring of the Lucii safely to him. Now go.”

Luna wanted to refuse, to stand beside this woman she barely knew. Noctis had talked about her in his letters often, though never in a way that made it sound overbearing and only after asking her explicit permission to talk about this woman. How she was quiet, how she had a presence that managed to outshine several people. A person to lean on, a person who could be as gentle as a Lucian summer breeze, a person who could be as harsh as the Glacian’s chill touch. Though Luna did not know this woman, she felt like she had a bond with her, and thus Nyx started dragging her to the car.

“Get movin’, princess! Lib, start the engine, I’ll get the princess over!”

She watched as the queen raised a hand in the air, as a familiar magical wall rose around the woman. How General Glauca kept trying to force his way through the pristine wall, how he gave up and tried going after the car. The queen retaliated near immediately with a barrage of thunder followed by the chill winds of death. She was simply trying to keep the Niff general occupied, Luna realised with a jolt of terror when the woman phased through an attack in the last possible moment.

“We have to help her! Please, we can’t just--”

“No can do, princess.” Nyx still sounded like someone had taken the wind out of his lungs, and his breath was still suspiciously short. Once Luna got a chance she would have to use the spell again to ensure there was no lasting damage done to the Glaive. “We’re getting the hell outta dodge. Orders. ‘sides, neither Lib nor I can use magic; it died with the king.”

She stared out the window. Her eyes followed the fight closely; just a single woman against an enemy general. An enemy general that had murdered the queen’s husband, and Luna’s mother. All this time ago. Ravus had told her, almost cruelly without leaving out a single detail, what had happened while King Regis had grabbed her and Noctis and started running after Glauca attacked him. How his voice had ever so slightly seethed, how he had trembled with fury.

Outside, one of the statues started moving in the flash that followed another sword strike being deflected by a near impenetrable magical shield. Queen Aulea was waking the Old Wall, and even the car slowed down a little as the Glaives watched a nursery tale come to life right before their very eyes. It was strange, finally watching someone with the full power of the Lucii fight, even from afar. The queen did not have a weapon with her; she lured Glauca in and struck whenever he hit a quickly conjured barrier. Jabs and kicks, balls of fire and fistfuls of lightning. It was like watching a fury come to life, supported by the Old Wall, a woman who had nothing to lose and the freedom of the Oracle to gain.

Suddenly Lunafreya understood why Noctis had always said that his mother was one of the few people who was just as, if not more ferocious than the Shield of the King. She had been staring out of the window so much that she had missed the conversation the two Glaives had started.

“No, no, I get it, trust me, but for real? That’s what they promised the others? But how’d you see through...”

“Wouldn’t lie, hero. As for that… ‘for hearth and home’ ring any bells? When Glauca said that over transmission I started to realise what horrible mistakes I’ve made. And that you were in danger. Just as the princess was. But the queen...”

Luna tilted her head and cleared her throat. “What about her?”

Libertus on the steering wheel cringed a little as a building collapsed off to the side. The streets were mostly ignored by the daemons that had been set loose by Niflheim, seeing as they were currently engaging the Old Wall. Somewhere below the highway straight out of the city Luna swore she saw people running. This entire situation seemed too surreal to be really happening, but the slight nausea that welled up in her body after healing confirmed that this was indeed real.

“The Niffs wanted her alive. Dunno more, but...” The driver looked out of the window for a second, let out a yelp and barely managed to dodge debris smashing onto the street. At least the streets being empty meant they had a lot of room for manoeuvres, even if Luna swore her entire world turned for a split second.

Healing took energy, and it had been energy she had not exactly been able to spare. Nyx on the front seat turned white as a sheet and coughed a little when Libertus sped up – Luna herself was just glad he was not coughing blood. Outside, on the shoulder of one of the Old Wall’s statues a magical barrier flashed bright blue, followed by the red of fire magic being slung around.

“I had no idea the queen could fight like that.” Even though his voice was quieter than before, Nyx sounded impressed when yet another pattern of fire bloomed in the night, somewhere against the sky and most likely about to descend upon General Glauca. “She always was so passive.”

Luna herself put a hand on the car window. “Most people fight better when they have nothing to lose, and even just a simple mote of vengeance to gain… but she does not fight for revenge. King Regis knew what would happen; she must have as well. What is she fighting for, then?”

More shields flashed across the night sky. Statues broke, daemons fell. It was surreal to watch. For a moment there was a moment of panic when Nyx passed out and Glauca landed on the street in front of them, but just a split second later Aulea appeared once more, slinging spell after spell to run the man off the street and ensure that the Glaives and the Oracle passed through safely. Whatever she was fighting for, it seemed to imbue her with an almost unreal power.

* * *

They left the city with the rise of the sun – Luna had opened her signature ponytail in case someone recognised her hairdo as that of the Oracle. It felt kind of strange leaving the city behind when she had come here hoping to meet Noctis after all those years. Nyx was limping slightly just as Libertus was, but they blended together with the other people that were leaving across the bridge that led into Insomnia. The air was thick with smoke even out here.

Eventually they had lost sight of the queen and Glauca, which Libertus had merely commented on with a “hope she tears the bastard into charred pieces”.

It was outside the city, a little away from the streets that they paused at long last. Luna had thought about it for most of their march out of the city, but once she finished patching up Nyx’s injuries for good this time, she folded her hands.

“I… thank you, both of you. It is only thanks to you that I am out here, but I would continue the road ahead on my--”

“No.”

The man who had spent the better time of her stay in Insomnia protecting her from the shadows like a good soldier assigned to his spot did was glaring at her from his spot. She had learned that Nyx Ulric was not one to agree to conventional terms that easily, but he crossed his arms and shook his head again.

“No, princess. Orders from His Majesty. I am to keep you safe until you reunite with His Highness Noctis… His Majesty Noctis. You’re not getting rid of me that easily, for I am many things – but an oath breaker I am not. And I swore an oath to follow orders when I was allowed into the Glaive.”

She was fairly certain she had heard him and Libertus discuss going back to Galahd together. Now that all of Lucis was under imperial occupation it would be ever so slightly easier to get back into other occupied territory; returning home after being separated from it for so long sounded like a thing that Luna would have done herself. Thus, when she tried to bring that up, Nyx immediately cut her off again.

“That’s true. But the point that I swore an oath to follow orders. And before you say it was not an order – whatever I perceive as an order counts. And King Regis wanted me to get you safely to his son. Therefore, that is precisely what I will be doing. If you want to send anyone here back home to Galahd, then send Lib. He’s only been given the order to get you out of the city by the queen. Big difference.”

She blinked, several times. What he said was true, but Luna herself knew that the road ahead would be dangerous, more dangerous than any other path Nyx Ulric could be taking. She wanted this man, the man who had called her princess instead of Oracle, to stay safe.

“Man, I’d have thought you lousy bastards would’ve gotten the princess further away from Insomnia before you started having that kinda conversation.”

The two Glaives cringed as if someone had shot them in the leg. Luna herself had never heard that voice before in her life, and looked at the speaker. It was a woman roughly her age, battered, bruised and beaten, but she stood there and held herself in a still somehow proud way. She had an almost illegally attractive smirk on her face as she walked over, even through all the dirt and grime that stuck to her.

“C...”

“No need to stutter out my name, big guy. Reckon you believed I bit it out there, just as the queen intended then.”

“Crowe… but how...”

What Luna heard next as this third member of the Kingsglaive started talking was like listening to one of the wildest stories of a daring plot within a plot. Queen Aulea had given Crowe Altius a secondary objective – faking her own death before anyone else caught up to her. She had tossed the hairpin out, making it look like an accident. When she hopped out of her transporter, she had nearly immediately scattered her belongings, torn off half of a leg of her trousers and half a sleeve, and then killed some nearby creature near it. Smeared blood all over it. Laid a fake trail into a brush, then taken off. A smashed phone, the hairpin and torn pieces of cloth were all the Kingsglaive that had been with Titus Drautos and therefore Niflheim had found of her. They had proclaimed her dead on a mission with no body to be found.

Crowe’s apparent death had pushed Libertus into the arms of the resistance, Luna learned next. The man looked so deeply ashamed of himself that she almost felt bad for him, but he stood up to his mistakes and admitted that he had acted like ‘a Garula-headed dumbass’. One that would not be accompanying Nyx because his mistakes had made him look like at least someone who had openly supported what could only be described as terrorist attack in the middle of a peace conference. Not that Niflheim had ever come here wanting to make peace, but Libertus had a point when he said that he would only bring more trouble down the line than was worth.

It was Crowe with her arms crossed who eventually broke the nearly awkward silence that then unfolded between Nyx and Libertus. “Are you guys done yet? In case you haven’t noticed, Lucis just got subjugated. Won’t be long before Niflheim starts lookin’ for the princess there and His Majesty Noctis. Saw it on a newspaper while getting here, but so far they’re both pronounced dead. Which means the empire’s about to tighten their net to find them and actually turn them into corpses. Which is precisely what my orders said I should help prevent. So if you two dumbasses aren’t done having your moment yet, I’ll be taking the princess with me and get somewhere safer than right outside the crown city.”

Luna couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at that.

* * *

“Look, princess, I don’t wanna sound like a complete ass, but… we need to get a change of clothes. All of us. Crowe especially, but you too. And maybe rent a car or something. Stay the night at some motel, since I really don’t think you’ll wanna sleep in a tent.”

Luna shook her head as they approached a settlement. “I will sleep wherever necessary. And if that is a tent, then so be it. Noctis was talking about camping rather fondly until Gladiolus made him learn how to put up a tent in one of his letters.”

“Yeah, that… that brings me to my next point.”

Nyx Ulric, she had learned in the next six hours of travel, was not exactly the best with his words. Crowe consistently shot him down, focusing on keeping Luna out of trouble herself. Thus, when he rubbed his neck now, Luna knew that he had spent at least ten minutes thinking about how to approach this particular issue.

“Crowe needs a replacement phone. Since you’ve been a hostage of Niflheim for so long, I reckon you don’t have one. But it makes this whole nonsense a lot easier for Crowe and me. So I was going to suggest getting you a phone. Teach you how to use it and all. Maybe contact His Majesty somehow so we can get you to meet him somewhere safe--”

“Alright. But promise me one thing, Nyx Ulric – let me pick a weapon. I will not stand for you and the lady Crowe over there to keep me safe with no regards to your own safety, especially seeing as the two of you are without your magic. And I am nowhere near as helpless as you would think I am if I just have a weapon I was trained with.”

“That I can believe, princess. Alright.”

Whatever town this was, she had no idea. She knew precious little about Lucis at large, but this settlement was charming. It was thankfully large enough to have several shops and a place to rent cars. Crowe offered Luna a hand and took her to the next best clothing store.

“You’ll need something more comfortable than the dress. You look stunning in it, mind, but it’ll be detrimental if we get into a skirmish.”

In front of the store, however, Luna stopped. A familiar bark rang across the street, and she turned around quickly.

“Umbra!”

She had sent the dog ahead of her, to Insomnia. To deliver a message to Noctis, that she was on her way to Lucis, to his home. Like they had promised twelve years ago; a solemn and a little childish oath to show her the city he had grown up in because it was, in his own words, still cooler than Tenebrae. A childish promise he never got to keep, and every so often when yet another letter arrived she had looked out of the window and imagined what it would be like to be in Insomnia in these very moments.

Luna let go of Crowe’s arm and ran over to greet the dog.

“I thought you’d come with Pryna!”

Of course the dog did not answer her and instead looked at her with his head tilted. She knew for a fact that both Umbra and Pryna understood humans, but given that they could not speak it mattered little. Perhaps it had been out of loneliness, but she had often spoken with the dogs, whenever Gentiana was not around. Thus, seeing her trusty furry comrade filled her with relief; the fact that he was in one piece and had sought her out meant that Noctis was most likely still in one piece. Or had been in one piece whenever Umbra had reached him.

“Please excuse me, Dame Crowe, I...”

“Nah, ‘s cool. Take care of that dog, but I really need some new clothes. I’ll be inside if you need me. Oh, and drop the ‘dame’ crap.”

With that, the Glaive went inside. Luna pat Umbra on the head again with a smile. He was carrying the pouch as always, most likely with the notebook that held her and Noctis’ letters over the years along with silly little stickers and postcards and the like. Therefore she opened the pouch and held the notebook for a while. This had to be the sixteenth they had filled almost to the brim with stickers, postcards, little doodles and additional little greetings. Noctis had once accidentally forwarded her his grades and given his father a part of a letter that he meant to send her; once he had even let Ignis draw her a little greeting in there. The man had a very fine handwriting, Luna had then commented back and Noctis had told her that apparently her praise had almost made Ignis blush. Even though she had never met any of Noctis’ friends and companions she felt like she knew them. How Gladiolus snored and sneered at Noctis yet still had gotten himself injured for the prince’s sake; how Iris Amicitia had once taken him and Prompto on an outing into the afternoon streets and they had returned as her personal carriers. How King Regis deteriorated over time even to Noctis’ shock, how Queen Aulea had tended several projects within Insomnia involving flowers, the joint efforts to make certain the city was in one piece and in peace at the very least. He had even mentioned the Glaive more than once, though his mentions generally were with lost battles.

Luna opened the book slowly, went past some more silly doodles. How Noctis had slept through a lecture once and not even Prompto had deemed it necessary to wake him up. He’d scribbled down the vague training with a shield that was heavier than himself up to a point that he could barely hold it while Gladiolus laughed at him and Clarus Amicitia had been rubbing his temples in the background. That little greeting that Prompto had sneaked in, the month Noctis did not speak to him following that.

Eventually she reached the end of the notebook, and certainly enough another page was covered in scribbles and words, with a sticker of Hammerhead squarely in the middle of it. Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto sent their regards, little greetings and ‘see you in Altissia’s that nearly made her frown.

“This is… from before the last night… isn’t it…”

They sounded excited to be out of the city. Noctis wrote an entire passage about how Prompto had managed to break down the car – King Regis’ old Regalia instead of Noctis’ personal car – and how they had to shove it all the way to Hammerhead. How Cid had made all but robbed them of their money and made them go hunting, how Cindy had given them at least enough money to stay at a camper if it came down to it. The hunt, the night under the stars they spent, how they were to continue their way to Galdin Quay the next day since it was already too late to continue driving after making a detour for Cindy.

The last thing written in the letter was how Noctis was excited to finally see her again after all these years.

Luna wasn’t certain he would still be looking forward to seeing her again after today’s news, after last night’s events. It made her insides constrict and nearly brought her to tears. The fact that now that Niflheim had stolen the Crystal remained over her head like a guillotine; she would have to march on to forge the covenants with the rest of the Hexatheon now as she had promised Shiva all these years ago and fairly recently before her trip to Lucis. It would most likely kill her somewhere down the line.

“Hey, princess? You okay there?”

She looked up only to see that Nyx Ulric had crouched down next to her. She had indeed started crying silently as she re-read the final line of the letter over and over, that little ‘I can’t wait to see you again!’ at the end. She quickly wiped her tears away with one hand and put on a half-hearted little smile.

“I’m fine.”

She did not fear death. She had never feared it, had always known that it was inevitable for her. But right now she felt like she would lose everything she never had, and that… hurt just about as bad as losing her mother and seeing Ravus run right into the arms of the empire had hurt. But after all those words that she truly, irrevocably meant, she could not look Nyx in the eyes and tell him that it was an unfair game she was playing, with the odds stacked against her. Therefore she closed the notebook and put it back in the pouch, then pat Umbra on the head again.

“Did you secure us a means of transport?”

The Glaive got back up and stretched before offering her a hand. She took it, and he hauled her back to her feet.

“Aye. Our money just about was enough for that and two phones, and whatever we have left Crowe has, so we should be good until we reach Lestallum. Then we might have to take on some hunting jobs to make ends meet.”

Luna closed her eyes again. “Perhaps it would be best if I went on my own after all. I really do not wish to inconvenience you and… Crowe. An Oracle’s work has ever been solitary and separated from the people she serves, and with… with what looms on the horizon, I would walk my path prouder knowing that I caused you and her no troubles. Not after all you have done for me. Not after hear nearly dying for me despite me not even knowing her.”

“You make it sound like you are about to run head-first into your very doom… Oh, hells, you _are_ , aren’t you?”

“An Oracle’s duty is hers alone, I would not endanger the both of you--”

“And we were given orders. No can do, princess.” He shot her a smile and gestured at the store. “Come now, before Crowe blows all our money on hairpins. We still need to get you that weapon you wanted.”

* * *

They stayed at the motel in the city, but they were not getting much rest. Nyx and Crowe both helped Luna fiddle around with the phone he had gotten her; a cheap but suitable enough one. It would not easily break and that was counted for the Glaives. Luna herself was finally holding a piece of freedom in her hands, after years of being but an elaborately treated hostage. After all this time, free, with no walls barring her ways just as King Regis had wanted it. It nearly made her cry again as she reached for a piece of paper and started to write.

“Give His Majesty your phone number.” That was about the only thing that Nyx Ulric and Crowe Altius agreed on that evening, and they soon descended into playful and familiar jabs as they played cards.

There were so many things that Luna wanted to tell Noctis, how she had been there and unable to do anything for either of his parents, for Ignis’ uncle who most likely perished with the rest of the council. She had not even seen Clarus Amicitia and had nothing to offer Gladiolus; she knew very little of Prompto’s parents so she had nothing there either.

Then she remembered the headlines she had seen on this day. Crowe herself had said the same thing – Luna was considered dead by the greater populace of Lucis, of all of Eos, just as Noctis himself was considered dead. She had watched how they had made a small offering of sylleblossoms on the town square after they had gotten themselves outfitted with travelling clothes and were looking for the armoury. In order to not look suspicious they had taken the flowers offered to them and put them in the small offering. It had been bewildering to put flowers in a memorial made to mourn your own death, but Luna had swallowed hard and moved on. The Glaives behind her had whispered something rather urgently as they moved along, but they had said nothing.

Perhaps simply telling Noctis that she was all right and alive, as well as she could possibly be, would be enough. Stick her phone number in the notebook, skip the letter entirely and simply return that to him…

She leaned backwards in the chair.

“Do the two of you reckon I ought to… tell Noctis more?”

They interrupted their card game, but it was Crowe who spoke next. “You two kept contact through the dogs delivering your letters in a notebook for all these years, right? Honestly, if you ask me, just getting even the smallest word of ‘I’m alive’ would calm me down if I were His Majesty.”

Nyx merely nodded along, and the two of them returned to their game.

She had a point, Luna realised. Therefore she opened the next page.

* * *

_I’m okay. Out of the crown city. Have people with me. Unhurt, fairly spirited, faintly optimistic that I might be able to avoid the empire for the time being._

_For now, have this. My companions made me get a phone._

_Hope we see each other soon._

_-Luna_

* * *

She wouldn’t have expected Nyx to be a safe driver. But according to the argument that ensued when they got to their rental car Crowe drove like a madwoman and would give them away. So, for the sake of secrecy they agreed on making Nyx their designated driver – Crowe was apparently too rowdy behind the wheel, and Luna had never learned how to drive.

The Oracle was staring out of the window for once. The Lucian countryside all but flew by, even if Crowe herself was complaining that Nyx was driving way too slowly. The radio announcer repeated that King Regis Lucis Caelum had been found dead in the Citadel, and that his son Crown Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum had been announced as victim of the Fall of Insomnia alongside his late mother and his betrothed, the beloved Oracle Lunafreya Nox Fleuret. There was talk of a barrier to check road travellers if they were in cahoots with the terrorists that had disrupted the peace conference and murdered the Lucian king and his council.

“Just good we already passed that – they must’ve tightened the net _behind_ us.”

Duscae was a rather pleasant region compared to Leide before. She could see the lake some kilometres away, saw the mountainous regions and the telltale signs of steep cliffs up ahead. The vegetation was much brighter compared to the oddly sandy parts of Leide they had driven through beforehand, and when she opened the window to catch a breath of fresh air it was humid.

“How long until we reach Lestallum?”

“We might have to stop at a haven, but at the rate we’re going we should be there by nightfall, hopefully. As long as nothing blocks our road.”

A huff from the front seat. “We’d be there faster if you didn’t drive like a stick in the mud.”

Luna laughed a little. She had never travelled with Ravus, or Gentiana. Or much at all. Her duties as Oracle were always overseen by men and women of the empire of some sort or another, reminders that she was indeed a captive and they would not hesitate killing her if it came down to it. Little did Emperor Aldercapt know that she would have to die for the sake of Eos anyway.

She let out a long sigh and continued staring out of the window. Umbra had received her notebook and was carrying it to Noctis, hopefully. All she could do was wait – wait until they reached Lestallum, wait until Noctis received her message and called her, wait until her body would inevitably give in to the stress of forging covenants on the Chosen’s behalf.

Perhaps waiting to arrive in a city she barely knew anything about was one of her lesser problems.

At the very least she would not truly be on her own, she noted with a small smile. Those two Glaives were arguing again; but the fact that Crowe was grinning and Nyx was rolling his eyes in what seemed to be fake offense really made this dull travel better.

Was that why Noctis had looked forward to travelling with his friends? Then again, Luna and those two were anything but friends. Perhaps they could have been if she had not been the Oracle and they had not been members of the Kingsglaive; two members that barely escaped death at the hands of their comrades and the Oracle they had been willing to die for and still were willing to die for.

Time passed slowly. Luna leaned back to enjoy the long but entertaining road travel.

* * *

Insomnia had been overwhelming, and had she not been with an official from Niflheim she would have at least commented on the Crown City of Lucis being breathtaking. She had grown up in Tenebrae after all, which had been under imperial occupation save for a very small strip of land upon which her ancestral home had been built. It lacked large cities; even if Insomnia was as much its own country as the rest of Lucis at this point. A hundred years of separation, a hundred years of peace.

Lestallum was overwhelming in one point – its heat. It was somewhat reminiscent of Insomnia, though nowhere near as impressive nor looking as expensive. It was rather clear that this city had not been much of a settlement in the past, but yet another small gathering of cottages splattered onto the top of a mountain. Then, the War of the Astrals, the inevitable rift, the gorges cleaved into the countryside. And the meteor and its pieces that broke off, held in balance by the Archaean further down at the Disc of Cauthess. Lestallum, years upon years after the Fall of Solheim, after the War of the Astrals, had begun to harvest these shards of the meteor as source of energy. It seemed almost as boundless as the legendary Lucian Crystal was rumoured to be.

Some people wondered why the Niflheim Empire had gone for the Crystal rather than the easier to attain alternative when they walked around to find a place to get information from. Crowe let out a snort herself.

“Yeah, it doesn’t add up. There’s much easier alternatives – yet they go for the heavily guarded treasure of Lucis, going as far as using the seeds of doubt and dislike amongst the Glaive to uproot the entire council, murder our king and leave with the break of night? It’s almost excessively dramatic.”

Luna knew Ravus had had an ulterior move, hells, she had seen it backfire on him quite literally. Someone had fed his growing obsession with power, had fanned the flames of his hatred for King Regis and his perceived murder of their mother. Perhaps someone had fanned similar flames of obsession behind the scenes, had egged Emperor Aldercapt and his research department on to create an entire army of MTs.

An imperial soldier passed her by, and she was rather glad that she had her hair open even if it made the heat worse. They would have to agree on code names before long if those two continued to insist on following her to the ends of the earth, into the maws of fate and the arm’s of destiny’s cruel end. She would have to get rid of them if they were to survive all of this; and they deserved to live after all that had happened in the crown city. Which meant, inevitably, she would have to escape her companions.

Eventually they reached a place to sit down, and Luna started absent-mindedly fiddling with her phone. Reaching Noctis who was most likely on the move as well would be hard for Umbra, but the thought that she would hear his voice after eight long years of only communicating through letters and stickers and doodles was both exciting and frightening. Noctis was by any means her only friend in the world, given that her brother had been appointed High Commander following the death of General Glauca. That had been the only piece of good news they had heard this morning as they left the place they had slept in; an apartment Nyx had managed to somehow get with his savings. It would serve as good base, and the owner was free to go home to Accordo without having to bother with renting the place out and having more ties to Lucis, a country fallen.

“She really did it…” Nyx’s voice was low as he held his mug of coffee. “She actually won against him.”

“And left lifeless and nearly destroyed statues in her wake. Damn, I knew there was more behind the quiet smiles once she laid down her plan to have me play possum, but… damn.”

The fact that Queen Aulea had convinced the Lucii to borrow their power to her cause has impressive, and the fact that she had been found dead in the rubble near General Glauca’s corpse had made the whole story even more tragic. She had killed her husband’s murderer and taken out one of the highest in her country’s enemy’s chain of command, yet still paid the ultimate price for her deeds. Luna almost wished people made flower wreaths for her instead of the Oracle who might not even be dead.

Luna herself felt almost painfully alive as she sipped the tea. So painfully alive in fact that she remembered the last words the queen had for her, and she nearly burst into tears right on the spot. Both Glaives were then looking at her, Crowe with a worried expression until Nyx sighed.

“Hey, princess. How about this – no more tea until we catch up with His Majesty and _then_ you can have another cup of it. With him. Like the queen wanted to.”

Before he even finished his sentence, Luna had closed her eyes. She couldn’t cry again, not after this almost pathetic display the day before. Thus, she merely shook her head with a sigh, then opened her eyes again. Perhaps this was the opportunity she needed to chase the two of them off and make certain they lived as she marched on as she had ever planned on doing.

“I can’t. I must needs awaken the Six and beg they cast their lot with Noctis. The price of the covenants… is a life. Mine. That has ever been my duty, Nyx Ulric, and I would not have either of you in danger for a lost cause. I appreciate that you have gotten me this far--”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold it right there, princess.” Nyx set his mug down and Crowe’s expression had changed into a frown as she sat there sipping her coffee. “Marchin’ onto gods and stuff, sure, fine by me, we can do that. But doing it so you can march to your death for His Majesty? Frankly, I’d rather fight a hundred Glaucas with bullets through my kneecap at the same time. You’re a charming lady, princess, but there’s gotta be ways other than playing the sacrificial lamb.”

Except that Noctis would have to play the same role down the line, whenever the Accursed deigned to make their appearance and wrap the world in night eternal. Luna had always doubted she would be alive for that.

“… We would need something short of a miracle to prevent that.”

“Well, then don’t go awakening the Six quite yet,” Crowe had also set her mug down, “and wait until later this week before we march onto whoever you wanna wake first. If we find an alternative within a week, we try that before we start the death march – and together, at that. Making things harder or no, Nyx and me are gonna come along. It’s what we owe our dead lieges.”

* * *

The city was surprisingly lively for something under such sweltering heat. Even in the night she could hear people chattering outside, laughter. It seemed a lot duller than it should have been, but they had only lost the war that had raged through entire generations four days ago; it was to be expected.

Luna had heard so much about the country by simply strolling through the city on her own or with either of the Glaives that she truly started to appreciate Lestallum as a whole despite the overwhelming heat.

Duscae had a Behemoth problem right now, and it meant that renting Chocobos was impossible until that had been taken care of. She could almost see the notebook entry of that before her very eyes, how Noctis would have tried to write about it normally, and then a small note by Prompto how awful this was and that someone needed to do something about it – and if it were he and the others themselves.

There had been more sightings of Zus lately, a rare breed of birds that normally perched on top of mountains to roost. One of the largest ever recorded had been sighted near Hammerhead the other day, and people theorised that something was going on at the Rock of Ravatogh that made the bird leave its normal hunting grounds. If the Rock of Ravatogh would erupt it would cause endless trouble down the line, and it worried Luna since she knew that this was the place the Six had sealed Ifrit’s lifeless body away at. It had turned the mountain into a volcano, but it had been so long ago that modern Lucians knew nothing of the gods sealed on their grounds.

Sea travel between Accordo and Lucis had been blocked; for the first time in ages the docks of Galdin Quay had been left almost desolate. People noted that perhaps the empire had wanted to catch Prince Noctis on his way to his wedding before they butchered him and the Oracle in one fell swoop and then they never bothered to open seaway travel up again, inconveniencing both Accordan and Lucian affairs.

It had never struck her that Lucis had truly not been occupied by Niflheim until a week ago. The country still felt like it was its own master, and even though there were imperials in the groups every so often it was mostly Lucians upon Lucians, densely populating the streets of Lestallum and breathing life into this charming city.

It were the offshoot streets and corners that added a peculiarly dangerous aura to the city, and somehow Luna, Crowe and Nyx had ended up in one of them. They had been taking a walk together the morning after Luna had somehow managed to beat the two of them at their card game. They had only given her a rough rundown of the rules – apparently a Galahdian version of the game – and then Luna had proceeded to sweep them despite the two of them having the clear advantage. Crowe had laughed herself silly while Nyx had looked rather stumped for a second before admitting his defeat; Luna loved these moments. They made her feel more like a person rather than an Oracle, and being dead meant that she had a free pass at acting like a normal person for once instead of being all proper and prim.

“We must’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere, I don’t remember this street at all...” Crowe looked behind her; this was indeed a completely desolate street.

Well, nearly.

Luna stopped both of them, and Nyx let out a low hiss when he saw why Luna had stopped them.

“The hell?”

“That explains the imperial soldiers in the city…”

She had never truly come face to face with any of the people in Niflheim’s governing body that weren’t her brother – apparently he had been Glauca’s deputy, she figured when she heard that he had been promoted to High Commander. Seeing one of them with their back to her in the middle of a desolate street in a town she barely knew sounded like something out of a horror novel that Gladiolus had read when Noctis had been 14. But she’d recognise that person just about anywhere, for they were the only person in the Niflheim government that refused to wear the telltale white of being an important person in Niflheim.

No, Ardyn Izunia generally wore dark colours, black even. The complete opposite, and Lucis’ royal family wore almost exclusively black.

Still, seeing the man here was unsettling, but what unsettled her even more was this familiar throbbing pain that crept into her head whenever she was near someone infected with the Scourge.

The first time she had felt that was when she had met Noctis; a dull pain that spread to her head, throughout her entire body. According to her mother it had ever been the ability of an Oracle to feel this particular sickness and what it did to the person it had latched onto, it made healing it easier because they could imagine the pain the person was going through. Noctis’ had been a dull but debilitating pain. Several other people she had healed in the past had sharp, stinging pains, others again the dull.

She’d never felt the Scourge throb, and it took her a good amount of willpower to not whimper right there and giving away their position, if the man was not already aware of them.

Whatever it was, it made her sight swim. She’d seen the man but days ago, though she had never been this close to him before; she had definitely felt something back then but not of this intensity. Was the man going to turn into a daemon right in front of them? Why was he not writhing on the ground in that case? Why was--

“ _Don’t forget, Luna, the Accursed will be making their appearance during your lifetime.”_

Her mother’s words, so clear and gentle back when she had continued her treatment of the sleeping Noctis, rang through her head now loud and clear, even twelve years later. She had nearly forgotten her mother’s voice, which made the sudden impact of this sentence even worse for Luna, and she leaned against a wall. What if Chancellor Izunia was but an identity assumed of the Accursed?

Which meant, this man could be immortal because of the Scourge throbbing within his body.

“Someone… either of you… shoot him. Kill him.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper, and Nyx’s head shot around to look at her.

“Are you _nuts_ , princess?” He was also whispering, though a lot more urgently than she had. “We’d be risking a political disaster just when things are starting to calm down in Lucis; you’ve heard the news! If we off the chancellor on our soil we’re going to risk your anonymity and His Majesty’s safety!”

“Shoot him already, Nyx Ulric…!”

“I won’t do anything crazy like that, princess!”

That was when the two of them heard the click of a gun.

“Crowe!”

“Orders’re orders, Nyx. She was giving one, clearly.”

“Don’t you dare!”

“Mhm.”

“Crowe, I’m serious--”

Nyx’s whisper was cut short when Crowe pulled the trigger. Apparently that gun had been her only weapon, one that Luna had not seen before.

The chancellor ahead of them crumpled to the floor, but the strange throbbing sensation did not cease the slightest. If anything, it got worse, and Luna did not manage to hold back a groan this time. Crowe meanwhile put her gun away, looking strangely satisfied with herself. Silence spread through the street until Luna peeled herself off the wall and stumbled towards the source of the infernal throbbing pain. That was when whatever shock had silenced Nyx finally wore off.

“Crowe! What the hell!”

“Orders, hero.”

“Crowe, you just _killed the imperial chancellor!”_

“Yeah, so what? He’s the reason our king and queen died in Insomnia.”

Surely enough, Crowe’s aim had been true. It was a clean shot through the head, and the man had fallen onto his face. Whatever injury he had would have been hidden by his red hair, dishevelled as it was. But Luna knew how to search for blood and injuries, it came with her training to heal wounds – and the chancellor lacked anything of the sort. He wasn’t breathing, yes, but he also did not appear to have been shot at all, least of all a clean bullet through the head.

The Glaives behind her were bickering, but being close to the source made the throbbing worse. She put a hand on the chancellor’s back, and there it was, the slightest twitch, the most minuscule amount of movement.

He had cringed.

The bickering behind her had dissolved into a full-blown argument, with Crowe calmly repeating that she had been merely following orders and with Nyx insisting that what she had done would inevitably cause a never-ending cycle of death as the empire and Lucis traded back and forth blows, until eventually they managed to catch Noctis Lucis Caelum and publicly executed him as payback for the death of the chancellor in the streets of Lestallum.

“You can get up at any time you please, Chancellor Izunia.” Luna’s voice was soft, but it was enough to shut the Glaives behind her up. “I know you are playing dead.”

An exasperated sigh. “Great, now the princess’s going nuts. Just what we needed on top of finding a solution.”

But Luna felt the slight tremble underneath her hand, though it took a moment for her to realise what Ardyn Izunia was doing.

The man was laughing.

“Well played, Oracle. Though a bit reckless. I would have expected you to turn around, not order me shot.”

He indeed sat up, and glared at her from underneath his bangs. The yellow glint alone was more than enough to make any person who had ever come into contact with a daemon run away screaming, but Luna held her position. After a moment he brushed his hair out of his face and she saw that his eyes returned to the hazel they normally were whenever she saw him on some sort of broadcast.

“Well played indeed. What now, then?”

“I… haven’t decided yet. But it is useful indeed to know what kind of person I would have to inevitably fight against. Perhaps we could discuss this over a cup of coffee somewhere a little more… private?”

From behind her she heard a snort from Crowe, and a defeated groan. When she peeked over her shoulder she saw Nyx shake his head.

“Oh, _hell_ no, princess! I’m not taking the imperial chancellor to our apartment!”


	2. the unreal and the grotesque

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Look. I would rather we get the play on the stage as soon as we are able, but without proper preparations it is bound to fail. I have done my part, you do yours. It would be quite unfortunate if anything happened to the Oracle before she could wake the Six.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's the 19th, which means it's been a week and i can finally upload the second chapter.
> 
> one of my favourite things i've written so far happens in here. also up until the 5th chapter (which is an in-progress as i'm typing this) the rest of the chapters aren't... as long as the first.

She had never really acquired the taste for coffee. While she had never minded the bitterness she had always preferred teas. Tenebrae had a wide selection of different floral or fruity teas, all of them wonderful if brewed correctly. Still, how people drank their coffee generally hinted at parts of their character.

Crowe liked hers black. Nyx generally put some cream in it.

Ardyn Izunia on the other hand poured so much sugar into it that just looking at it made Luna’s teeth hurt and her stomach churn. She knew people who drank it with a lot of sugar – Ravus was one of them, ironically enough. The few times she’d seen him and talked to him she had noticed exactly that. According to Noctis, Ignis drank his black as well, Prompto with sugar and cream, and Gladio with cream. She’d seen her captors drink theirs but… not a single human being had ever poured that much sugar into their drink as Ardyn Izunia.

The fact he kept eye contact with Nyx as he downed the entire mug in one go just made the entire situation even more surreal, and Nyx shuddered deeply and excused himself from the table. Even Crowe looked like she would rather be somewhere else than here, to which the chancellor responded with a crooked grin.

“Now then, what gives me the honour of being assassinated by the Oracle and two members of the Kingsglaive apparently in her employ?”

Nyx had started leaning against a wall in the apartment, whereas Crowe was stirring her coffee now. Luna folded her hands and looked out of the window.

“Other than you being allied with Niflheim?”

The chancellor rolled his eyes. “In which case you would have initiated a nearly vicious cycle of blood for blood. Frankly, not even the sheltered and valued hostage Lunafreya Nox Fleuret would be _that_ naive, especially considering her rather important duties, no?”

The smirk he was wearing was infuriating, but Luna remained calm as it was ever her duty. To laugh into the face of danger; and this man was the most dangerous thing she could have invited right into her makeshift base of operations. Still, there was something she needed to know from him.

“Perhaps, perhaps not. Let us assume that what I ordered was calculated, Chancellor Izunia. Though, I do have to wonder – how would you know about my duties?”

She put on the most infuriatingly sweet smile she could muster, and surely enough the chancellor lost his. It froze near immediately and he looked at her through narrowed eyes for a good moment before leaning back into his chair with a sigh.

“Much as I enjoy playing a charade, I _just_ got shot.”

“Then feel absolutely free to cut to the chase, Chancellor Izunia.”

“I could crush you right here and walk out unscathed, Oracle, and neither of your bodyguards would be able to even lift a hand before this was over. Should you truly be provoking me?”

“Yet I do not see you raise your hands against me, nor do I see any sort of weapon on you; therefore rendering your threat vain and empty. I dare say you need me for something later on, no? Who else would awaken the Six if you got rid of me pre-emptively?”

“Touché.”

The silence that now followed was almost awkward; the only thing Luna heard was a soft beat that sounded not unlike a heart – but was much too slow and ominous to match a living being. It most likely came from Ardyn himself once again as he shoved his empty mug around idly while thinking about something.

Eventually he looked up again, all previously present malice vanished from his features. It almost made Luna jump out of her chair because it looked a lot more threatening than any expression he had worn before. “Now then. What does the Oracle do in Lestallum?”

“I could ask the same of the Chancellor of Niflheim.”

He shook his head. “Unlike me you do have a duty to attend to, Oracle. Should you not be rousing the Six from their slumber and lead the esteemed King of Light to them to ensure he can last against darkness eternal?”

There wasn’t any malice in his voice. It was an honest question, one of the last things she would have expected of this man.

Tenebrae had been absorbed by the empire unlike Accordo. Tenebrae’s government was completely dissolved – those that survived the day of the invasion were left without jobs. Luna’s titles were reduced to Oracle, Ravus was left with nothing but his name. Quite a fall to take for the crown prince of Tenebrae, though Luna had never minded losing the princess title.

As citizen of the empire she knew how the empire operated. She knew the entire government, how it all came back down to the army – but she knew that the chancellor, while not affiliated with the army, was quite the character to behold. According to some rumours it was his idea to create the Magitek infantry, he had helped forward the research and helped tremendously throughout its conception, development, and eventual successes. A man shrouded in mystery, yet none could seemingly outsmart him. He was resourceful and cunning; yet his character seemed to completely contradict this. She had never met him directly before, though she had seen the way he acted and had read it in reports and the like. For a man who allegedly had a scarily bright head on his shoulders, he surely acted the fool most of the time. He was often described as friendly to a fault, almost unsettlingly accurate with his predictions.

What Luna had sitting before her now was not Ardyn Izunia, Chancellor of Niflheim, however.

“Those who slumber will not be going anywhere until my voice reaches them directly. I am in neither rush nor the false belief that you being here has any good implications. Yet… Yet I must ask you one thing, Chancellor Izunia.”

He shrugged and Luna turned to look at the Glaives. “Promise me neither of you do anything.” The two of them also shrugged.

There were many things she could have asked. What that infernal slow beat that sounded like a heart was. An explanation for the dull throbbing pain she had experienced earlier that had nearly stolen her breath entirely. Why the chancellor was here to begin with; what nefarious things the empire was planning now. Luna took a deep breath.

“Are you the Accursed, bearer of the Scourge that so torments our homes, the supposed bringer of darkness eternal?”

She heard Nyx inhale sharply behind her, and Crowe got up from her seat to walk over to him. The two started urgently muttering something that Luna did not hear, and Ardyn’s eyes were on the two of them for a good minute before he returned his gaze to her. He remained perfectly still for a good moment.

Then his entire face deteriorated. His neutral expression turned into an unhinged grin that was nothing short of _utterly terrifying._ His eyes went from hazel to stinging yellow and the sclera turned black. For but a split second she was sure that black blood was running down his face, but before she could react to that someone had grabbed her and pulled her off her chair.

A dull throbbing pain spread through her head again as Nyx and Crowe pushed her against a wall and stood between her and the still sitting perfectly still Chancellor of Niflheim – no, the Accursed.

The man however merely started laughing and wiped at his face.

“Is that answer enough for the Oracle?”

“Yes, yes it is. Thank you.”

“Then surely you know that your duty is one you cannot shirk, don’t you?”

It was Crowe who took a step forward. “Like hell we’re gonna let her march to her own death.”

He had put on his human facade again, and the look he shot Crowe was nothing short of condescending and scathing. “Really now,” he said calmly, “and pray tell how would you even do that?”

That was what they had spent nearly the entire time thinking about. Even Luna had joined occasionally, letting them bounce ideas off of her to see if they would work. It all came down to the issue of the Accursed still being around and the source of the Scourge going with them. Unless they found the Accursed they would not be able to change the fates of Oracle and King – and now they had the Accursed sitting right in front of them, perfectly unharmed after _getting shot in the head._ There were many things they did not know about this man or his affliction, the parasite he carried and perhaps even spread, but the fact that he was here remained.

“Princess, is there a chance you could heal h--”

“No.” Ardyn interrupted Nyx so quickly that all eyes turned back on the man who was still sitting around almost entirely unbothered by this situation. He was wearing a smile again, a condescending and smug one. “Unless you would want your _princess_ there to die a violent death, writhing on the ground in agony and throwing up black sludge mixed with her own blood as her entire body convulses, I would recommend not doing that. For it would kill her and not change anything.”

An Oracle had died like that in the past. Way in the past. People had assumed that she had overused her powers and thus future Oracles were urged to take breaks as often as they could when healing, but hearing this now made Luna involuntarily shudder. Nyx was stunned into silence until he shuddered as well.

Another minute of silence, which Ardyn then broke with an exasperated sigh.

“Look. I would rather we get the play on the stage as soon as we are able, but without proper preparations it is bound to fail. I have done my part, you do yours. It would be quite _unfortunate_ if anything happened to the Oracle before she could wake the Six.”

Luna shoved the Glaives out of the way. There had to be something they could do about this man, and all of a sudden she had an idea. She looked at Ardyn for a good moment, then turned around and lunged for Crowe.

She had no intention of harming the Glaive, but the sudden movement caught the woman off-guard. Luna but wanted one thing, and once she had her hands on that she snatched it away. A few long steps so she stood on the opposite side of the room, while the Glaives watched her kind of confused and the Accursed kind of amused.

A click echoed though the room, and it was enough to make even the Accursed jump from his seat.

Crowe’s gun, and Luna was pressing it against her own temple. Nyx and Crowe were frozen on the spot, and even Ardyn seemed hesitant to move as Luna put a finger on the trigger.

“So you do need me, more than the empire ever did.” This had to be one of the dumbest things she had done since the day she and Noctis had covered Ravus in flowers as he slept and considered shoving a flower crown into his mouth. “Which means you would be in, ah, how do I say this… _deep shit_ if something _unfortunate_ were to befall me.”

“I told you to stop cursing in front of the princess,” was said quietly, followed immediately by a “Shut up, Nyx!”

Her only hope was that her trembling hands would not give her away, but this was not something she had planned on doing, ever. But this man, this supposed Chancellor of Niflheim, knew more about her role in this play than she did. He knew more about Noctis’ role – he knew how it began, and he knew how it could end somewhere down the line. This was the man who would inevitably curse Eos to eternal darkness.

He was her only hope of figuring out how to avoid shepherding Noctis to his certain death.

The fact that he needed her to do her role meant that she had some weight on her scales that tipped them in her favour, however, even if threatening suicide was far from something she would have ever done under normal or even other circumstances. This was the exception to the rule, however. And surely enough, the man’s eyes were darting about as if he were looking for a way to keep her from shooting herself.

“Now, now, are we not all adults in here?” He even sounded nervous. “Put the gun down, Lunafreya.”

“No.”

He sighed again and seemed to physically deflate there for a second. He was admitting defeat most likely, for Ardyn Izunia always acted rather certain of himself. Something like that was unheard of from the man, and Luna knew for certain that she had the upper hand now.

“I might… However, it comes with conditions.”

“… State them, then.”

The fact that she had the Accursed squirming before her was kind of… amazing, really. She had always thought that perhaps, if she lived that long into eternal darkness, that she could stand beside Noctis for at least the beginning of his march. She had imagined the Accursed as some kind of abomination, barely human to begin with. Something to be saved from its eternal torment with Noctis’ heroic sacrifice. Not a gaudily dressed man who just happened to be the Chancellor of Niflheim.

“First, you will tell us what the empire is planning here in Lestallum. Second, you are now under my command. Slip up and I’ll kill myself.”

That earned her surprised looks from all people in the room. Luna, however, intended to keep her friends close and her enemies closer. There was also the fact that the Glaives now serving her were without their magic. Having _the Accursed_ along with her at least meant that they had a reluctant protector if things went south. If he truly needed her then he would interfere in fights that could harm her or her mental well-being – and her mental well-being meant Nyx and Crowe being at least alive. Ardyn gestured vaguely before nodding slowly.

“Third, you tell me all you know about the fates of the Chosen and the Accursed, of the role of the Oracle. I would quite like to know that, for it might help me and my friends here formulate a plan on how to change it.”

Another pause. He stared at her for what felt like an eternity, his eyes wide in surprise.

Then he started laughing.

“Very well. I am at your disposal, Oracle Lunafreya.”

* * *

“Honestly, I wonder if the Six blessed you with the most ungodly amount of bravery I’ve ever seen.”

She couldn’t help but grin smugly as she leaned against the table. Lestallum at night was an amazing experience; she had known that the people of Lucis quite liked even late day activities, but seeing this market so full even though the sun had long since set was something else. Luna laughed a little, but the sound was drowned out by the chattering that she could hear even here.

“Nyx told me the stuff you pulled. ‘s impressive, but that display today, I gotta only pull my metaphorical hat before you.”

Crowe had invited her along while Nyx said he’d prefer keeping an eye on Ardyn. Luna had gladly come along with the Glaive, for this woman remained a mystery to her for the most part.

“Well, what can I say? Desperation makes creative.”

“For real, princess, but you’re a notch even above that.” The woman set down a paper plate with a skewer on top of it in front of Luna. “Can’t believe they actually sold Galahdian food. Here, you said you wanted to try it for yourself the other day, right? Well, there you go.”

Luna blinked. “You… remembered that?”

“Sure. I wish I could make you an entire festival meal, but beggars, choosers. But that today, that was the best thing I’ve seen since the day Lib missed a warp and landed in a tree during training.”

With that Crowe sat down and the two of them ate in silence until Luna set her skewer down. It was one of the most delicious things she had ever eaten in her life, though a tad too savoury for her personal preferences.

The two of them watched the crowd together, with Crowe chewing rather slowly and with Luna tilting her head from side to side occasionally. There was something she quite wanted to say, but she wasn’t sure how to word it properly without sounding kind of strange. The crowd even increased as time slowly passed and Luna was quite happy they had managed to snag this table away from the main attraction – some sort of spice sale, it seemed. She was fairly certain she had heard several of Lucis’ native spices praised and prattled about this evening.

She had started chewing absent-mindedly again and continued watching the crowd. This seemed to be the only place in all of Lestallum that the Niffs avoided, and suddenly it made sense to her. This market was lively, loud, and full. It would be very easy for someone whose mind was not on the goods bartered here to drive a knife into the back of a soldier and not a single person here would care. The hottest topic was still the lost war, how the Lucians’ distaste for the empire had all but increased since King Regis and Queen Aulea had been confirmed and Prince Noctis pronounced dead after the Fall of Insomnia. There were rumours that the prince was alive and on the move, however, since many people said the fact that his wedding was to be held in Altissia and the fact that he was seemingly missing from any official meetings within Insomnia after a certain point merely fanned these rumours.

She had even heard that the Oracle was supposedly alive, most likely on her way back to Tenebrae or already in Altissia. If Prince Noctis, no, King Noctis lived, people said, then Oracle Lunafreya would have to be alive as well. It wouldn’t be a proper love story if she weren’t, and she stopped chewing.

Suddenly that skewer tasted bitter instead of savoury, and she set the rest of it down on her paper plate. She couldn’t even bring herself to swallow it, and Crowe noticed. Much to her surprise, the Glaive stood up and grabbed a napkin.

“You don’t have to force yourself to finish it, not after that… nonsense these people just spouted. Really, don’t worry.”

It felt wasteful to not eat up, but if she had continued eating she would have been liable to burst into tears. Thus she nodded, accepted the napkin offered to her gratefully and tossed the remains away. When she returned, she instead saw a glass on the table. Just one. Crowe waved at her with a small smile.

“Normally that’s when we start drinking, but I reckon you’ve never really had any. You can try it, and if you don’t like it, I’ll finish it. But for now, try it.”

“… Thanks?”

She sat back down and eyed the pint in front of her for a while. It was true that she had rarely had anything other than tea or plain water in her life – it was better for travels, rejuvenating without clouding her mind, managing to get her back awake without making her jittery whenever she needed it. Still, she was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and sipped carefully. That was when Crowe sighed and stretched.

“Really, man, listening to these crowds makes me wanna barf. I mean, sure, I dunno anything about His Majesty and you, but all that talk about star-crossed lovers is just… ugh. It’s just ugh, y’know.”

Luna set the pint down. “Yes, it is quite… bewildering, really.”

“Hey, if you don’t mind… How come you and His Majesty agreed to these terms anyway?”

Luna blinked in surprise and looked at Crowe. The woman looked genuinely curious about the arranged marriage. She could have most likely refused it, if it had come to it. The thought had never crossed her mind, and any excuse to get out of Tenebrae and see Noctis seemed like a good excuse. Even if it meant getting married to him.

She bit her lip for a second. “It… I… I never thought about it.”

“Really?” Crowe sounded surprised.

“Would you say no to marrying your best friend if it meant you got to see him whenever you pleased and weren’t on duty? Like, say, if you--”

“If you say ‘married Nyx’ I’m shoving him out of the window at 3 in the morning as he sleeps. We’re friends, sure, but I’d rather not spend my days with him ‘til death do us part if I could avoid it. He’s my friend and will always be, but I seriously doubt we’d ever dissolve into a burning romance of some sort and get hitched dramatically. But a marriage shouldn’t be done out of necessity. Since you called His Majesty your friend I thought you were in a similar situation as I.”

“I… I never considered it.”

Crowe grabbed the pint and chugged it, almost reminiscent of Ardyn downing his sugar-coffee mix earlier that day, and set the glass back down. Luna herself was staring at the ground now, almost a little embarrassed. Ardyn had been right – she was naive. Naive enough to assume things would work out the way she intended, naive enough to assume that everything would be good once the peace terms were settled and she and Noctis met each other after twelve years in front of the altar.

Naive enough to order the Chancellor of Niflheim shot and not assume someone would do the same to here in retaliation.

Crowe returned the glass and the two of them decided that it was about high time that they went back.

“Hey, princess? If it’s too intrusive, step on my toes ‘n all that, but… What’s His Majesty to you? You said earlier that you’d be marrying your best friend.”

Luna stopped for a moment before walking ahead of Crowe.

“When I was younger, I really thought I… loved him. Y’know. Like all good princesses in stories are supposed to. That I’d be waiting for him to come save me all my life, and the day he did we would immediately be wed and all would be well in the world. Peace on Eos. Happily forever after, till death do us part. It wasn’t until one day Umbra sat before me with the notebook I had given Noctis and asked to send it back once he put something in it that I realised how… stupid fairy tales are. There was this boy, younger than I, destined to be a grand king who would save Eos, and there was I, the girl who was destined to stand by his side. But instead of slapping just a sticker and some choice words into the notebook, he had stuck an entire letter between its pages. It ended with the words that he missed me and the time we spent talking, and that was when I realised… Just waiting wasn’t enough. So I wrote back. And it continued – I mean, hells, you’ve seen me write back to him on the day we spent in that town after getting supplies and renting that car.”

Luna stopped and looked up. Lestallum’s electric light was fairly warm, all things considered. It was enough to keep the daemons at bay, although they used the light that other places did at the edges and in the important parts of the city, just to make sure. She wasn’t used to artificial light being so warm.

“I would have been happy, I’m fairly certain. I do love him, though not… not in the way princesses do in fairy tales. I would not want to marry anyone I could not be friends with, and being by his side was something I always wanted, more than anything else, so I… I never thought about it. I boarded that airship that brought me to the outskirts of Insomnia, just beyond the Wall. I got in that car with the person they assigned me to. I let Nyx drive me to the Citadel. I even spoke with King Regis, Queen Aulea… and never thought about it.”

Crowe and Luna both stopped and looked at each other.

“That’s… not the answer I was expecting, honestly. But...” The Glaive shot her one of the warmest smiles that Luna had ever received in her life, and she almost immediately smiled back without thinking. “Thanks for answering.”

* * *

They had spent another hour simply walking through the city, talking. Crowe was a surprisingly good listener even when the topic came to the exceedingly dry topic of her duties as Oracle. It was mostly travelling, meeting the people if they did not come to find her first. Healing was an ugly art all things considered, for it cost a lot of energy. Still, it was something that only Oracles could do – there were no records of other healers, after all.

It wasn’t until they returned to their place and heard muffled voices that they even remembered there were other people with them.

“Oh no. That sounds like Nyx being angry.”

“… We… we did leave him alone with the Chancellor of Niflheim, didn’t we...”

“A’ight, princess, I dunno how ugly this’ll have gotten while we were gone, but be prepared for just about anything once I open this door.”

“I am as ready as I will ever be, Crowe.”

Crowe opened the door.

Ardyn Izunia was sitting on the couch, eyeing Nyx Ulric out of the corners of his eyes. The lights were off, giving the whole situation even more of a surreal feeling than it needed. Nyx was holding an unopened container that said “Cup Noodles” on it; he was pointing a spoon at the infinitely older man sitting on the couch.

“Yeah? Well, look who’s all high and mighty – don’t you have a fuckin’ job anyway? ‘Cause I’m doing mine, and you sure aren’t, Mister Chancellor!”

The man on the couch rolled his eyes. He had his feet on a chair that he had clearly snatched from the table Nyx was sitting on, and surprisingly enough he had lost his coat while waiting. His hair looked a little more messy than it had before, and Nyx’s clothing had bee disturbed – had those two fought physically while Luna and Crowe had been away?

“Please. The highly esteemed and insufferably clever Emperor Aldercapt runs this country almost in its entirety. They can easily do without me, what with their new High Commander – speaking of whom, take a wild guess whose position outranks that of a chancellor as well. If your petty little brain is currently too preoccupied with trying to come up with the next best insult you can manage, let me repeat that. My position is mostly that of a representative, and I am currently representing Niflheim, am I not?”

Nyx slammed the cup on the table. It surely looked like he was moments away from hurling the spoon at the Accursed, but thought better of it for some reason. Therefore, he merely pointed it at the man about as threateningly as he could make a spoon look.

“And your second job?”

“My… what?”

“Your second job! Don’t you have some countryside to haunt, some pots to bang behind some people’s houses, to spread some terror as de-facto leader of all daemons across Eos?”

Ardyn finally turned his head to look at Nyx proper. He opened his mouth and closed it again several times, apparently too stumped to say anything, before finally settling on “Are you completely lost to all reason? The Accursed is not some local cryptid, like some sort of swamp ghoul that howls at the waxing moon and keeps people awake as its job description.”

Crowe finally switched on the light, and both men turned around to look at the Glaive and the Oracle, who now walked into the room. Crowe dramatically inspected things while Luna shuffled over undo her ponytail and place the hair tie in a tray on a shelf. Eventually the Glaive put her hands on her hips and looped at her comrade and at the chancellor.

“Well, at least the two of them didn’t turn the place into a wasteland.”

Luna giggled, “I always believed in them from the very beginning.”

Nyx, perhaps.

The chancellor, not so much.

“Well, hush, off to bed! We accepted a hunt for tomorrow. That includes you, Nyx. Put the damn noodles away and sleep. I don’t want you complaining about not getting enough sleep tomorrow.”

“Only if you stop complaining about my driving.”

That was when the man on the couch moved once more, one of his unnerving smiles on his lips.

“Oh, worry not. I will be driving – we will be taking my vehicle.”

Oracle and Glaives looked at each other for a good while. Luna just prayed she had made the right decision and that the man could drive at all.

* * *

The Cauthess region was scraggier than any other part of Lucis. The hills that must have once been there had long since turned into sharp cut-outs and vegetation rarely touched these raw rock formations. In the centre of that stood the Archaean, sleeping as he held up the meteor. Their hunt had taken them a fair ways into the hills, and Crowe and Nyx had gone off to scout ahead.

Luna was not entirely comfortable to be left behind with the Accursed, but she knew that he would not dare doing anything. Not while she had Crowe’s gun in a holster that she had visibly attached to her own waist. It was her only means of controlling the man, but Luna was quite certain that as long as she made certain she had the upper hand he would be about as tame as a daemon could become.

“The Archaean.”

She blinked at him.

“The Archaean is what Niflheim is after. But as long as he sleeps they cannot do anything.”

“So you were to coax me into awaking him and then order the strike.”

“Something of the sort, yes.”

Luna hated that tone of voice. All her life she had imagined the Accursed to be some sort of undoubtedly tainted, evil creature with a voice that was more daemonic in nature than anything else – not the voice of a very amused man who sounded like he was in his late forties.

Up ahead, the Archaean stood perfectly still, slumbering as he had ever since the end of the Astral War – or perhaps since it came to an eternal standstill. She was not quite sure which had truly happened, and Gentiana as the Glacian’s voice rarely ever shared her knowledge of the past. The woman always insisted that it was for the King of the Stone’s ears and his ears alone, and that Luna was to guide where he was lost. She loved Gentiana dearly, considering she had been her caretaker for so long, but the woman sometimes infuriated her.

Luna raised an eyebrow at Ardyn. “So you will do as you did to the Glacian all those years ago?”

The man shrugged. “Emperor’s orders. Though I must admit, I definitely did not oppose the suggestion. Best served cold, and so forth. Alas, I fear there were multiple reasons for me to make you wake the gods. After all, what good is a king heralding the light without a god’s powers?”

She hadn’t considered that. Since Ardyn was the Accursed, he must clearly know what the prophecy entailed, what Noctis needed to do to banish dark eternal. Which made his almost casual statement of wanting Noctis to receive the power even more baffling.

“Wouldn’t it be easier for you to win if you denied Noctis the blessings he needs?”

“Certainly, make no mistake. But what fun is fighting a powerless opponent?”

“You’re… weird.”

Her mother had always told her the truth, as far as her mother had known it. How the Accursed was the herald of darkness, how Noctis was to be the herald of light. How they were Bahamut and Ifrit’s kings, black and white, on opposing ends of the field. How Luna was to be the white queen, a guiding hand. But Ardyn himself seemed so… gleefully aware that he was doing anything but stacking the odds against him.

Her hands brushed the gun on her waist. “Powerless as in… unable to kill that which cannot die?”

A nonchalant shrug followed by a hum. She had expected many things, so many terrible things – but this was shaping up to be worse than anything she would have ever expected of the Accursed. “Even if he were to strike me with his power at the fullest, with the blessings of gods and men at his side, I would not die. You should know as much, Oracle. You should also know that if he succeeds, neither of us will live – what the Chosen needs to do is _destroy_ me at the gates which have denied me entrance since the day the…” He paused and shook his head. “Death eludes me. Were he to merely strike me down, even if he destroyed my body, I would merely awaken once more after time passed. What your precious little Chosen will have to do is play the reaper at the gates of the beyond. Destroy the source, destroy the Scourge.”

Luna looked back at the Archaean up ahead. She had only heard the tales of Shiva’s fall at Ghorovas, in the middle of grieving for her dead mother and clinging to Ravus as the empire moved into Fenestala Manor. All of Tenebrae had fallen silent in shock at the news of the Glacian’s demise, for she had ever been a bringer of hope and peace. Niflheim had murdered hope and peace, had killed the Oracle who spread said hope and peace. They had attempted to take the life of the safeguards of the future King Regis and his son Noctis – the empire was soon seen as country in cahoots with the Accursed. If only Luna had known that these claims were true; she had said that no mortal would willingly ally themselves with the Accursed, and as bad as Niflheim was, surely they would not ally themselves with the devil itself.

“Slaying gods is what the empire seeks, then. Is that the only reason why you were in Lestallum?”

“Commander Loqi Tummelt, stationed at a recently established roadblock to catch either you or the wayward Lucian king suffered a humble defeat at the hand of said Lucian king, his companions and the Crownsguard Marshal Cor Leonis three days ago.” Luna immediately looked back at the man. His smile now was back in full force, as infuriating as it had been before. “Which means they slipped into Duscae and are most likely en route to Lestallum. Distractions on the way notwithstanding, of course.” In the distance, she heard the cry of a Chocobo. “My original plan had been to send you on your way to awaken the Archaean from his sleep, delay the relay of that information to your esteemed lord brother until I had made certain that Noctis Lucis Caelum himself would be at least in the middle of a trial in case the Archaean desires to test his strength for a covenant. You can feel it too, can’t you? The power sleeping ahead, sharp against the meteor and the slumbering god. Therein rests a royal arm. All of which the Chosen would need at his disposal to stand a chance against the Accursed.”

She heard Nyx and Crowe calling for them, mentioning how they had spotted their mark about a kilometre away. Ardyn started almost casually walking towards the Glaives, as if he did not have a care in the world.

“Are you,” she began, quickly following him, “lying to me?”

The grin that followed seemed to fit the politician he was supposed to be much better than the Accursed he was. “That which can eternal lie might tell the truth; it merely depends on your choice of words when formulating a question.”

* * *

It wasn’t until about two hours later that Luna pondered on that again.

She had little knowledge of what hunting entailed, but the Glaives had described it rather thoroughly. They had also mentioned that hunters could easily become the hunted if things went wrong, and it was especially the case for those who hunted daemons in the night. All three of them had thrown a cautionary glance at the Accursed, but the man’s expression did not even change the slightest. If he was truly the Accursed then he should be able to control daemons if it came down to it, but neither Nyx nor Crowe wanted to rely on that. Thus they had to finish their mark and at least return to Ardyn’s gaudy car before nightfall – they were on a time limit after all.

At first the fight had gone smoothly, all things considered. Nyx and Crowe had ever relied on warping and magic, but Nyx at the very least still managed to fight rather well despite having lost his biggest advantage. Crowe had snagged herself another gun before they had left and made certain to stay out of direct range of their mark.

A single, enraged Kujata that had terrorised this part of Cauthess for a good while. Apparently it had been injured by something and had then proceeded to wreak havoc on nearby farms. The farmers had asked for help and the mark had ended up even in Lestallum because food was and remained the single most important resource even in a Lucis that had lost the war. The kingdom had been completely self-supplying for hundreds of years, perhaps as stubborn show of independence from the other countries on Eos, especially Niflheim.

At first Luna and Nyx had charged in, Luna with heavy thrusts of her lance and staggered dodging – she just wasn’t that used to fighting in actual danger yet. This was bound to improve, and all things considered a Kujata was not that dangerous a creature.

Or so they had believed.

The battle had soon turned south when the creature had managed to knock Nyx with one of its hooves. The man had crumpled to the ground and it had charged past him. Crowe had barely managed to avoid it but landed in a patch of brambles, getting herself stuck in there.

Luna watched as it ran straight past her – it was focusing on the one member of their party that had not lifted a single finger. Ardyn was indeed sitting a little bit further uphill, amusement clear on his face as they struggled against the creature. He had not started vocally taunting them at the very least, but it was rather clear that the man was moments away from breaking into laughter at this pathetic display. For all the tough talk, the Glaives were not entirely used to fighting without the magic of kings at their side, and it showed just as much as Luna’s general inexperience in actual fights showed.

Still, she wasn’t going to let that Kujata trample the Accursed into fine paste. She needed him, even though she knew that he would be back.

Ardyn meanwhile made not even the slightest move. He sat completely still, staring at the creature that was trampling towards him at a surprisingly high speed.

That was when she saw it. It was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, but a split second. For but a heartbeat she thought that the Kujata had reached and run over Ardyn. What it had truly hit were was but the red after-image of the sitting man.

Ardyn had phased. A skill normally reserved to the royalty of Lucis alone.

Luna stopped her charge, coming to a stumbling halt. There were many things she could have done, but as she watched Ardyn dust himself off a roll of the eyes, she remembered what he had said earlier.

He would tell the truth if asked properly.

“Ardyn Izunia!”

He looked over his shoulder, almost deliberately turning his back on the Kujata that stopped its charge once it realised that it had missed its target. “Yes, Oracle?”

Somewhere behind her Nyx groaned and tried to get back to his feet. There was the distinct sound of something tearing as Crowe attempted to free herself. Luna’s hands were shaking as she held her lance as if it was the last thing in the world she could rely on. Still, she remembered what he had said earlier.

“I ask you; are you Lucian royalty? And if you are, can you do as kings and queens of Lucis can? Could you share your powers with my companions?”

He sidestepped another charge by the Kujata, which Luna also dodged. They did not break eye contact while doing so, though part of her sleeve was caught by the horns and torn away. As the creature once more came to a halt with an angry snort, the imperial chancellor shot her a smirk.

“You learn faster than anticipated. Yes, I am and I can, should your companions be willing to – just know that my power differs from that of the kings and queens of Lucis, for I am and will ever be that which the gods and history call the Accursed.”

As if to underline the statement he waved one of his hands through the air to conjure up what looked like a flame. Except it was stark black with violet wisps. The Kujata behind her was snorting and clacking his hooves against the stone, apparently trying to decide on a target between the barely standing man, the woman who had freed herself of the brambles, the Oracle with her back to it and the man holding a black flame in his hand.

She had seen Nyx fight with the power of the Crystal, borrowed from the king. She had stood beside him even, unable to call upon her own magic, stood underneath the shining shields and walls. She had slammed her hands against it as Queen Aulea froze, as King Regis smiled at her and told her that from now on walls would no longer block her path. Luna had watched, had almost been entranced by how quickly the shields manifested. How severely hot the fire was, how the thunder crackled and how the ice was foretold by a most ominous chill. She had listened to Crowe describing it, how the surge of magic was oft followed by what could only be described as rush of adrenaline, how the magic did not tell apart friend or foe and therefore was a weapon most delicate.

She had also seen the damage that the dark wrought. How a daemon’s magic could fester if it hit a person, how it ate through living organisms. It was like an acid burn, and many a daemon roaming the wilderness unchecked developed the ability to use this very magic. Seething, destructive, almost a denial of life and happiness itself, choking. Encompassing.

Her heartbeat felt like it had slowed to a crawl. What she had made Ardyn offer Nyx and Crowe was not just a familiar power. It was something far more dangerous.

“Just know that what the power of the crystal offers I cannot. No fancy shields for runaway heroes, no magic walls to deflect blows.”

Instead he was offering a slice of a magic most ancient. Older than even the Oracles, older than the line of Lucis as far as she knew. Yet another snort from the Kujata.

“Alright, fine, I accept! Just _help us,_ for fuck’s sake!”

“Nicely put, hero. What he said. And hurry it up!”

* * *

“How old are you, anyway?”

“Tsk. You should not go around asking for people’s ages, fair lady Oracle.”

“Answer me.”

“I have no obligation to--”

“You do, actually. You accepted being under my command for the time being. So, answer me, how old are you?”

The payment had been rather high, and when they had returned Nyx had mumbled about finally understanding how on earth hunts were priced. Finally being able to stock up, the Glaives had almost immediately gone off to spend a rather large sum on supplies, additional clothes, first aid kits in case Luna could not heal their injuries.

She was lying on the couch in their apartment, with Ardyn sitting at the table. She was still on her toes despite the nausea from healing all those injuries Nyx and Crowe had sustained in the end despite their magical recovery, and therefore rather certain that the man would not attempt anything.

“Older than your calender.”

Luna raised her eyebrows. “So at least 767 up to infinitely older. That is not the age I would have expected the imperial chancellor to be – I would have guessed you to be in your late forties or early fifties. But are you even older than that?”

He looked rather annoyed as he tipped over the empty glass that had been standing on the table unused while they were gone. Someone had just forgotten it on the table, and for a split second Luna thought he was going to throw the glass at her as he picked it up. Ardyn merely put it back properly and sighed, deeply.

“You tread a dangerous path; one that civilisation followed once before in its path. Too much curiosity leads to hubris, Oracle, and ‘twas man’s hubris that rained fire upon cities, that razed towns to the ground. Hubris scattered the ashes of civilisation to the seven winds and let the survivors deal with the blow-out.”

“… You lived during the fall of Solheim.”

He didn’t even answer her and instead went back to messing with the glass on the table. A few minutes passed in relative silence until Luna’s nausea came back in full force, and she gagged on the couch. That was when Ardyn finally stood up, and much to her sudden terror, walked over to her. He stopped in front of her, glaring down as she wheezed.

He walked away; for a split second she felt like she had seen something that she shouldn’t have. It had looked so similar to her mother back when she had healed people. A focused, sharp gaze that held no malevolence.

“Tell your Glaives that there will be no hunting. Tomorrow they ought to train – that display they had earlier fit the situation, but such sloppiness cannot be allowed to continue.”

After all, the gods needed to awaken, to give the Chosen their blessing. That was all that Luna had ever been born for, her task.

* * *

This time it was her sitting on the hill, watching the other three bounce about. Well, Ardyn definitely did not bounce the slightest – he honestly looked rather annoyed and dodged whatever the other two threw at him.

“You’d not even manage to squish an insect with that, Ulric; where’s that ‘hero’ they praised and feared? No, Altius, focus harder, I’ve heard of the Kingsglaive’s most talented mage – they called you the sorceress in the empire, but all I’m seeing is a pathetic display of weakness!”

At the very least they seemed to not have any sorts of unfortunate side-effects. If Ardyn had been playing a dirty trick on them to make those two his minions and make Luna do as she ought to, it was not working. Neither Crowe nor Nyx displayed any signs of the Scourge, something that Luna had checked for as they slept. She would most likely lose in a direct showdown with Ardyn, but as long as she was not entirely on her own and did not do as the man wanted her to she had the upper hand.

She watched as Nyx tossed one of his daggers at the Accursed, only to miss him by a few centimetres. The Glaive yelled in frustration, something about this magic feeling strange and foreign compared to that of the Lucian equivalent, to which Ardyn answered with a crude “well, then get used to it!”

Lucian magic felt different when used, but she had to admit that something about this felt familiar. The magical residue that soon seemed to flicker around the makeshift battlefield. She had first and foremost learned the healing arts in her life, much like Noctis had been trained with the power that the crystal offered him. It was said that the Lucis Caelum family and the Nox Fleuret Oracles were the only people left in the world who could use magic – the fact that the Accursed could use it never really struck her. Daemons were abominations that clearly defied the laws of the world, and therefore many of them relied on corrosive magic when fighting. Perhaps she had expected him to be doing the same, not… this.

It honestly looked rather a lot like Lucian Elemancy, with the added element of darkness to everything that he did. He lacked the shields but instead had a fourth element. Ardyn did explain it earlier; apparently it was but a subspecies of Elemancy, for no humans had been able to use magic at the time the Astral War happened. Which meant he had truly lived during the time of Solheim’s fall, perhaps he had even lived before that. She would have not been surprised if the man admitted he had a hand in turning against the Pyreburner, the very event that had started this very war that Gentiana had often described as end of times.

She raised her gaze to the horizon, against which she clearly saw the meteor. The Disc of Cauthess was almost disturbingly calm, and the surrounding regions were too. Yet she felt the tug of destiny, the desire to awaken the Archaean and tell him that she would do anything to prevent what would inevitably happen. If she just kept Ardyn busy for years and years on end, until she and Noctis both passed on…

A faint noise broke through her thoughts. It took her a few moments to even realise what this was – none of the three training down there were singing all of a sudden. No, apparently Crowe had finally managed to land a blow on the Accursed, and the man was now explaining something in detail. Luna wasn’t paying attention at all.

Then she recognised the sound. Her phone. She had nearly forgotten it.

Which could only mean one thing. Umbra had finally reached Noctis.

Her hands were shaking as she answered the call.

“Hello…?”

Luna clearly remembered these days in Tenebrae. It had easily been the best days in her life. Sitting in the flowers and laughing together with Ravus and Noctis, interrupting possibly important talks between her mother and King Regis only to hand them some of the flower crowns she and Noctis had made. Pushing his wheelchair through the halls and hitting Ravus with them much to her older brother’s dismay and Noctis’ amusement. All those fireflies they had attempted to catch once Noctis had been well enough to walk at times, those lush and calm Tenebraen evenings that they had spent sitting at the windows and trying to see if they could see any of the star signs that she had learned recently. Many people would have expected a twelve year old like Luna to be a little more mature around an eight year old like Noctis, but the two of them had gotten along nearly immediately after the initial shyness faded.

She still remembered his voice from back then.

Which was why she was stunned into silence, nearly on the verge of crying, when she finally heard his voice again after twelve years.

“Luna!? Luna, is that really you!?”

He’d written her hundreds of times. All those letters, and yet none of them really compared to this, even if it was just hearing him speak to her over the phone. “Noctis… Y-Yes, it’s me.”

She heard something muffled in the background, most likely Ignis, Prompto of Gladiolus saying something, but Noctis immediately told them to shut up. Luna herself was holding her phone like a lifeline at this point, nearly forgetting that she had her own trio of people nearby.

“Thank the Six you’re okay, when we heard that you’d been pronounced dead with dad, mum and myself I feared the worst… Like, I really hoped that it wasn’t true like my supposed death, but, still… Man, I don’t think there’s a word in any language on Eos that can properly… y’know, express how happy I am to hear you’re okay...”

Luna laughed. “Likewise – when I left the crown city and heard that the empire pronounced you dead, I just… Gods, I am--”

A loud warble interrupted what she was saying, followed by Noctis yelling at Prompto and a Chocobo.

“Gah! Sorry about that, sorry! Prompto, get your fucking bird away while I’m on the phone!”

Another loud warble followed by an excuse, and claws clicking against what sounded like solid rock.

“...” That was the moment ruined, but Luna was rather grateful for that. Perhaps she ought to thank Prompto for that later. “Say, Noctis, where are you?”

“Following rumours of a sword behind a waterfall. Well, we found the waterfall, so we just need to get there. Then Umbra approached us, and… well, you can figure out the rest. Oh! Northern Cleigne, Iggy says.”

Northern Cleigne could just be about anywhere as far as Luna knew. Her knowledge of the country was fairly limited, and even the Glaives had spent more time with maps in the car while arguing than anything else. But, all things considered…

“Probably too far away from me to join you.”

“Yeah, no kidding! It took us an hour to get here even with the Chocobos! Unless you were literally around the corner I doubt you’d catch up to us, and we have an entire cave system to trudge through if this really is the place. Wouldn’t wanna do that to you. Where are you, then?”

She blinked. Telling him would mean that he would attempt to catch up with her once his errand was done. The fact that she had the imperial chancellor at her side remained, and that was not even taking the fact that the man was the Accursed into consideration. No, Noctis would be in more danger if he joined up with her right now while she still struggled with the decision whether to awaken the Archaean and lead him to his certain demise and the planet to salvation or not.

“Southern Cleigne. The empire’s on my trail, it would be… unwise to meet up.”

It was a blatant lie, but it was better to lie for his own good. Even though that disappointed sigh Noctis let out hurt her. “Alright. You gotta tell me once you’re safe, though, we _absolutely_ have to meet again. It’s been so long.”

“That it has… You will be the first person to know I have shaken the empire off. Promise.”

He sounded like he wanted to say something, but a deep voice she assumed was most likely Gladiolus said that they needed to get a move on if they wanted to continue scouting ahead and then returning to the outpost before nightfall. Noctis agreed.

“Sorry, Luna. Gotta go.”

“It’s alright.”

“Hey, say, how about we just… talk more often? Or text. I’m pretty sure your companions could teach you how to, and I’d know you’re safe. And you’d know I’m safe.”

“… Yes. I shall ask them once they return.”

“Alright, alright, I’m coming, buzz off Gladio! Well, anyway, I’m glad you’re okay. I’ll hear you again soon, I hope!”

He ended the call with that, and Luna lowered her hand. She stared at the phone for a few minutes, torn between relief and agony. Noctis was alive, he sounded fairly happy all things considered – it was not to last. It had been a week since the Fall of Insomnia, and her time was running out. Though she doubted her actions, she was not one to go against her word. Tomorrow she would have to decide on whether she wanted to rouse the Archaean or if she was to wait.

It was only now that she realised that the two Glaives had been standing nearby. Crowe and Nyx exchanged a worried glance with each other before walking over and sitting down beside her.

“Your dog reached him, then?”

“Yes.”

The three of them looked at each other before collectively sighing. Luna knew that the two of them would have done just about anything to help her, and Luna’s desire was to keep her best friend in all of Eos from dying. All three of them turned to look at Ardyn Izunia, who was staring at the Archaean in the distance himself, judging from the direction he was looking. That was when Luna remembered that he was as much part of the prophecy as Noctis was, and she stood up.

“Princess?”

“I need to… talk to him.”

Nyx shook his head. “Not on your own, you won’t. He called it off because we were getting tired, you were distracted and because he’s generally an asshole, I guess. Let’s wait until we’re back in Lestallum, hale and whole, alright?”

She frowned at him, but eventually agreed. The two of them needed the training with their new powers, and Luna needed the time to think.

* * *

The story went that the Accursed had risen from the ashes of Solheim, a dreary reminder of the by then dead Infernian that the Scourge he had wrought was to be an endless torment for human hubris. Before they went to slumber, exhausted after the Astral War, the rest of the Hexatheon had gathered and chosen a man and a woman; the first king of what would become Lucis, and the first Oracle recorded in history. Unto the man they granted the crystal and the Ring of the Lucii as tool for smiting the Accursed once the King of Kings, the Chosen, arrived – until then they were to keep the peace and as much of the Scourge at bay as they could. Unto the woman they granted the power to heal the tormented souls, to guide them to peace, a power most gentle and guiding as it was meant to guide the Chosen once the appointed hour arrived. The powers of the Oracle as well as the Ring of the Lucii were since then passed to every next generation, a reminder that eventually salvation would come in the form of the Chosen. The Chosen would banish the dark at the cost of their own life, guided by the Hexatheon against the minion of darkness that had most certainly relentlessly tormented Eos into an era of darkness by that time.

Said minion of the darkness was currently laughing. It was an ugly laughter, not even the slightest bit joyful. It made his entire body shake, and his surprisingly red for his age hair bounced off his shoulders.

“Oh, I had truly forgotten how downright hilarious the Cosmogony was. Thank you for this _delightful_ little reminder, Oracle.”

She’d more expected herself to meet the Accursed on the battlefield. Perhaps she would not have lived until then. There had been so many possibilities.

Him sitting at the table and nearly knocking over a glass of water they had given him several hours ago that he hadn’t touched yet was… not one of the possibilities she had been expected. Luna set the book down, almost gently. Copies of the Cosmogony were usually the same, and most of them held the same illustrations that were hung in the halls of the Citadel, most likely still untouched despite the violence that had broken out in these very halls.

Crowe was blinking, slowly looking from the book to the man and back, apparently trying to think of something to say, but considering how she remained silent nothing came to mind. Nyx himself had once more set out to grab some more resources.

“Hilarious?” Luna asked. “I always thought it was… history, mixed with the divine.”

Ardyn brushed his hair out of his face and turned to look at her. He did not even remotely look like the supposed monster that would gleefully torture those that harboured hope, nothing like the line of blood that allegedly trickled through the pages of history.

“An unkind reminder that those who fail to meet expectations will receive naught but scorn and hatred in return perhaps, but definitely not history.”

Slowly but steadily the words started making sense in her head, and with a jolt of terror she realised what these words meant. “You were… there. You were there when the first king of Lucis received the crystal and the ring.”

“I would hope I had been there – _I was the one who received them._ Though not the one to keep them.”

Luna stared at him as he glared at her, and she gestured at the gun that lay in front of her. “Please, tell me what you mean. It is my duty as the Oracle to know, to guide with the knowledge.”

What followed was a story that Luna had never before heard in her life. That of a man with powers exceeding the Oracle, with little to no guidance as to how to use the crystal, with the support and love of a broken nation at his side, for he quelled the remaining fires of war. He subdued the Scourge and asked for naught in return, a man who was heralded as saviour before long. A man who walked alongside the gods that had just won the Astral War.

A man who came across the source of it all, who tried to quell it there and instead carried it with him.

Turned away by the very gift he had been given, those had he had once trusted had turned against him, stole his name and his rights. Bleeding, betrayed, and left for dead, all he could do was for a painless demise.

Not even that they gave him, and at the gates to the beyond, the gods turned him away. Discarded him when they had once claimed that he had been the one chosen to bring salvation. Ashes where once burned a fire, the remains soon ignited with raging hatred. At the same time he swore his bloody revenge, the gods all but handed his gifts to those that had stolen them, gave them a prophecy to latch onto. Before he could even strike he was branded the Accursed, unfit to live, unable to die. Thus he turned onto the one that had caused his despair to beg for at least one small measure of help, and as the Healer as herald of the gods was erased from history, the Accursed as harbinger of darkness under the Pyreburner’s guidance soon arose.

Normally this would have shaken Luna’s entire belief to the very core, but there was something he had said during all this that made her pause. She had spent most of the drive back and the remainder of the day running her own thoughts in circles, almost desperately trying to think of a way to save Noctis from his fate. The only conclusion she eventually reached was that there was no undoing the threads of fate that had been so deliberately spun around him unless someone else had the markings of being the Chosen; a person to take his place.

“… You were the Chosen. You went with the blessings of the gods…”

Crowe gasped softly when she understood what Luna wanted to ask, but all Ardyn did was grimace.

“Honestly. Not to sound like the Accursed here or anything, but sometimes I do wonder where humanity left its brain. Unless you make the gods detest him enough that they would consider letting me go with their blessing once more, I sincerely doubt whatever your little head is making up would work.”

Luna blinked.

Blinked again.

One could have heard a sewing needle hit the floor in the apartment in this very moment until Ardyn narrowed his eyes.

“I really don’t like that expression.”

She put a hand on the Cosmogony, slowly.

“The Oracle is to guide the Chosen, to stand beside him. You yourself said that you needed me to waken the slumbering gods so all could go according to plan. I was to beg for covenants.” She looked over at him. “Ardyn Izunia is the Accursed. But Ardyn Lucis Caelum was the Chosen. If the Oracle were to guide Noctis Lucis Caelum, the alleged King of Light, into fights against the Hexatheon as the Accursed looked on and did not interfere...”

Ardyn himself kind of stared at her hand on the Cosmogony now. Crowe remained eerily silent.

“There’s no telling what would happen. I could be leading the world to its certain doom. But it is worth a try.”

He rolled his eyes with a sigh. “Prophecies aren’t what they used to be, truly. How barbaric.”


	3. rails of precarious decision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “If I were you, I would get a haircut. Not many people here in Lucis will be happy to see a man who looks like the Chancellor of Niflheim.”  
> “Oh? Perhaps I might do so. Thank you very much for the advice, Marshal handsome.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i actually hit the word count goal i set for myself on the 21st... this is the first nano i did, so i was thinking that maybe setting myself a goal of 60,000 is a bit too... extreme? but here we are on day 26, with 69,000 (NICE) written just this month. i'm honestly kinda blown away ;v;
> 
> hope whoever reads this enjoys it! next chapter'll come next week.

Perhaps in an attempt to march with the same certainty that Queen Aulea had displayed in these few hours she had gotten to speak to her, Luna marched ever onwards even though her entire body ached, horribly so. The Disc of Cauthess was nearly unbearably hot, and wisps of flame drifted up from below. The Archaean’s body remained as still and seemingly dead as it ever had, and for but a split moment she felt a pang of doubt. Titan had held up this meteor for so long while waiting for the arrival of the Chosen that it seemed almost unnecessarily cruel to even attempt this. But this very moment the Glaives had stood resolved beside her as the Accursed once more had attempted to reason with her.

“It might backfire horribly.”

“That is a danger I am fully aware of, and will risk it. My conscience is clear on that front.”

“You do know there is a chance that you might be leading him down the same path that I took. Forgotten by history yet shunned by it in the same breath, hated by the public that once loved him – trust me, I have heard how much Lucis loves their heir to the throne. How they believe he will bring salvation and Lucis back out on top. I am not _deaf,_ Lunafreya. You might be barring his entrance to the beyond with this. A fate so dire that the only person I would wish it upon is his ancestor who claimed my name and eventually my gifts as his own after burning me at the stake.”

Yet here they were, with the only one unbothered by the intense heat being the very man who had vehemently disagreed with this entire endeavour. Yesterday she had made certain to text Noctis, even called him in the evening and explained her plan. It was a blatant lie, and it hurt to lie to him like that, but she needed him at the Disc for when the Archaean would awaken.

Noctis was coming here thinking that she would be waiting for him there – all he would find would be Titan. Later on, once they confirmed that Titan had indeed awoken only to not find the Oracle before him she would have to text Noctis and tell him to fight. Vanish before the fight was over. Hope it all went well.

Luna tugged at her clothes a little. Perhaps it would have been better to explain everything to him in detail, but as far as she knew nobody had ever told him of the fate that awaited the Chosen. King Regis had sworn an oath that Noctis would have as normal a life as a crown prince could have, destinies and inescapable darkness be damned. Nearly no living people knew what being the Chosen held in store – Luna was fairly certain that only she and Ardyn knew for certain, with Crowe and Nyx having been told on the way to the Disc. They had naturally looked kind of disturbed, for even those that did not follow the belief of the Hexatheon closely did believe that one day the Chosen would lead Eos back to glorious light. There was nothing said of what would truly happen and what would come afterwards.

She tried not to focus on the sweat dripping down her face; this place was almost unbearably hot. Somewhere further down the ground seemed to simmer, flickering in the heat as it was strangely red. There was a fair chance that this path down there was more painful than it let on, and she was rather happy that they were further up.

Ifrit had died in the Astral War. Felled, eventually, by the herculean effort led by Bahamut. It left the earth torn, civilisation in shambles and ravaged by the sickness that Ifrit had unleashed upon it. Titan had surprisingly enough not perished after catching and holding up the meteor, and froze in this very pose for what could have been all eternity.

Tales of how to wake the Astrals had been passed down from Oracle to Oracle, though in her case it had been Gentiana that had told her how to waken the sleeping gods. Fifteen at the time, Luna had asked if waking Titan would not cause the meteor to fall down after all this time.

“The lady does not need to worry; so long ago has it been that they have but become one.”

It seemed almost ironic that the Archaean slept in a place nearly as hot as the battlefields of Solheim during the fall must have been, but she did not dare asking about it. There was still a good chance that Ardyn had only lived after the fall, not before it. And she truly felt like she had pried too much from the man who rarely spoke unless forced to. Nevertheless, it were Crowe and Nyx she leaned against as they kept watch. Up here nobody would see them, but they could see the Niff checkpoint that they had trashed during the night. All in an effort to make Noctis’ arrival as smooth as they possibly could, even if Ardyn had muttered something about this just alerting her brother to her presence and endangering her ‘precious Chosen’ even more than he already was.

“If worst comes to worst you are still the imperial chancellor – do something about it, then.”

He had but repeated that even though it was one of the highest possible positions in the empire to attain, he still had no say over what the army did or did not do, and especially not anything about what the High Commander might do.

Ravus was another thing that was rather high on her list, but for now it mattered more to test this out. If it worked, she would be able to help avert a fate that would cost both her and Noctis’ lives; knowing that she was not going to die would most likely soothe Ravus enough to listen to reason again.

She hoped.

He was so far away from the teenager who had begrudgingly let himself get hit with wheelchairs, who still wound up reading to the two of them if they but begged enough. But perhaps if she had results instead of determination she could sway him over to her side.

That was a problem for another day, though. Nyx touched her shoulder in an attempt to grab her attention, and pointed downwards once she looked at him.

Luna had never actually seen the Regalia. Noctis had talked about it in his letters, saying something about that car made him feel safer than any walls or crown cities could. She didn’t really understand what he had meant, and finally seeing the car she didn’t really understand still. What she did understand was that there was history attached to this car, even if the four of them hopped out to check if the checkpoint had indeed been taken out in advance.

A quick nod and she and Nyx retreated back from the ledge they were on, but not before Ignis looked up and adjusted his glasses. If he had seen them then their cover would be blown in advance and their plan in shambles. Mercifully he did not say anything even if he had seen them, and the four men started walking down the only path left to them.

Luna’s group had checked what had been down that path in advance. Much as her gut feeling and the strange pull of magic had told her when they had been hunting they had found a royal arm on the ledge of a cliff. The cliff itself looked like it would break at the earliest convenience – Ardyn had commented that if the Archaean were to wake and look around for who had woken him, that cliff would most likely slide down and leave whoever stood on it with little choice but the face the Astral directly.

Apparently Ardyn would have counted on a similar tactic if Luna had gone and done her duty like she was supposed to before moving on to Angelgard and waking the Fulgurian from his slumber. She didn’t exactly feel all right with using a tactic that the Accursed would have employed to make certain Noctis would arrive at his trial, but there had been no other ways. That cliff with the royal arm resting right on top of it was the only place that led further into the Disc, close enough to the Archaean’s feet.

“Well then, Oracle. You still have a chance of backing out of this. Perhaps if you would do as you were ordained to ease your conscience, then do so.” No mocking tone, not even a sarcastic grin. Ardyn wasn’t even looking at her. “If you do initiate the rite, there is no saying what will happen. There will be no second chances, no easy ways out. If you rouse the Archaean now, with the Chosen so close nearby without a clue, someone is liable to get hurt. Whether it is the Archaean or the Chosen I cannot tell.”

They had thoroughly discussed most possibilities on their way here, with one simple fact being the most important in their plan:

Solheim had forged weapons that managed to pierce the divine. It was what they had used in their uprising against Ifrit, it was what they had used during the Astral War alongside the others of the Hexatheon. Modern machinery seemed to have the same kind of element inherit to it, as well as heirloom weapons that had been passed down since time immemorial. The royal arms were such weapons, even Noctis’ own blade was one of that kind. As far as she knew Prompto used a gun just as Crowe did, which meant that this, too, could deliver fatal blows to the Archaean if the need arose.

She would have to ask Ardyn about that later.

Still, Luna clutched her lance as she walked towards the other edge of the elevation they had spent the better time of this day on. She was fairly certain that her hair clung to her face by now much like Crowe’s did. Her steps were surprisingly hesitant for someone who had told the Accursed time and time again that her mind was set. In front of her was but a gaping abyss with the occasional waft of hot air being accompanied by wisps of ancient flame. The Disc of Cauthess had ever been a place where flame burst from the depths of the earth, not unlike the Rock of Ravatogh.

She took a deep breath.

To commune with the divine, and Oracle needed a voice stronger than the darkness. One of the few ways to pierce the veil of darkness, other than plain shouting until her voice was raw was a song. A song often reached those that were succumbing to the Scourge, and often that split second was enough to put an end to the daemon that the person would become. A song it was that would rouse the Astrals, a song that only the Oracles learned – and even if one of common birth sung it, the Astrals would only rouse for those with the blood of the Oracle.

Which meant those that still lived would answer only her and Ravus, if he knew the melody. She was one of the only two people on Eos who could awaken Titan, Ramuh and Leviathan – Shiva had perished to Niflheim testing if modern machinery could pierce the divine under Ardyn’s command, Bahamut rested within the crystal and would only answer those of the Lucis Caelum line, and Ifrit had been vanquished hundreds of years ago and been lain to rest whence mortals did not go.

At first, her voice shook as she started singing, clutching her lance even harder than before. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw that Nyx did as she had ordered him to – he was on her phone, slowly but steadily writing out a message for Noctis – the very man who had but gained the power of another royal arm mere moments ago.

She closed her eyes. Felt the rumble of the earth, the heat emanating from the core of Eos. That was Titan’s element – earth. Her uncertain voice became clearer, perhaps louder. A melody still thin compared to the sheer might of the earth unfolding in front of her, so very hard to move, so eternal as time itself.

Luna sang. It was all she could do.

The earth shook, and for but a moment she felt like she saw the Archaean’s eyes opening – for a moment she felt like she was one of the four people standing in front of him as he opened his eyes. Noctis was staring at his phone, and her song broke at last.

* * *

[13:24] Luna: Noctis.

[13:24] Luna: The Archaean has awoken.

[13:24] Luna: I’m afraid there’s only one thing you can do.

[13:25] Luna: Fight.

[13:25] Luna: Your life depends on it.

* * *

Old Lestallum was a surprisingly quaint settlement. It was rather clear that the new Lestallum was in a much better place, but the nearby river’s rumbling was soothing. It reminded her of sitting at her window in her room back in Tenebrae during rainy days, staring out of it and watching the water run down the glass. She hadn’t been allowed to leave at her leisure – the imperials had made certain of that, and perhaps in a twisted way of showing his love and near soul-crushing fear for her Ravus had agreed with keeping her confined or watched for most of the time.

If it weren’t for the Lucians sweeping up broken glass and roof tiles with fearful glances towards where the Disc of Cauthess lay it could have passed for a normal day.

But it was not.

The quaking earth would haunt her for quite a while, the way the horizon up ahead seemingly shook along with the very earth beneath her feet. Some cliffs apparently had rained rock and sand, but thankfully no settlements were close enough to the rocky mountains and gorges that left long and deep clefts throughout Lucis. The fight that Noctis had waged against the Archaean had quite literally shaken Lucis – more than enough confused imperial soldiers had scattered around here after they had pre-emptively set up an imperial base near Old Lestallum, perhaps in yet another futile attempt of catching the wayward king and Oracle.

She offered a woman on the streets her help with a smile – it was a pained grin, more like, considering the deep cut on her cheek. But since she and her companions were directly responsible for the earthquakes that had shaken the region for a day it felt like the right thing to do.

As the Archaean fought the Chosen, Ardyn and Luna had watched from afar; Luna with naught but fear in her heart and Ardyn as unreadable as before. But after a long war of attrition between the Archaean and the Chosen, Noctis had managed to outlast the raging Astral. No human, not even the Accursed understood what the Archaean said. For but a moment Luna had felt like she understood him as shimmering particles started floating about.

It had been Ardyn who had risen to his feet then with a whistle.

“Interesting.”

He had been there when they had slain the Glacian. He had been the one to suggest it in the first place, and though there had been massive losses the empire eventually succeeded in subduing and subsequently killing the goddess of ice that had risen after the death of the Oracle. As far as Luna knew it had been a massive, thoroughly expensive military display of might. Hundreds of mercenaries fought alongside the army, an army made of humans and MTs alike. It was like the beginning days of Solheim’s downfall all over again, with mortals rising against the fury of a god. Except that Shiva accepted her inevitable demise, for her adoration for humans had long since withered. It died with her, but perhaps in her heart of hearts she would be happier joining the Infernian. That Luna believed at the very least.

“What is?”

Ardyn curled his left hand into a fist, only to open it again. He repeated that motion several times before finally looking up.

“I would not have pegged the Chosen for a godslayer. Nor would I have expected you to be so reckless.”

They had left before any of Noctis’ group had the chance to recover, with Nyx almost refusing to hand Luna back her phone. They needed to think their next steps over carefully, and tearfully apologising to Noctis was not going to help the slightest. As Ardyn drove them to Old Lestallum with the words that Noctis most likely had a base in Lestallum and the danger of running into him as he recovered from the stasis he just went into was rather high. After dropping them off here and securing them a hotel room for a few days, he had bowed and excused himself from her services for at least a day.

“Unlike other people I do have a job I ought to attend. Though I doubt not that the High Commander Ravus Nox Fleuret will be less than pleased about this development. But I shall see to hopefully pinning him to his location for a few days even after I leave; perhaps you might want to talk him.”

This was the second day, and there were still smaller earthquakes that shook the region. They were nowhere near as bad as the ones that had apparently started during the time Noctis fought the Archaean, but they still disrupted daily life and shattered quite a few windows.

The woman accepted Luna’s help almost gratefully and handed her a broom to help sweep up the shattered glass on the ground. Further ahead she saw yet another memorial made of sylleblossoms, though these had wilted. The woman must have noticed that Luna had spent but a second too much looking at it as she helped.

“The imperials are whispering that the Oracle must have had her hand in the sudden waking of the Archaean.”

“… Ah?”

“You aren’t from here, are you, lass?”

Luna shook her head slowly. “No… I’m from Altissia.”

They had come up with that excuse on their way to Lestallum. Luna was supposed to be from Altissia whenever people asked, a young lady on a trip through Lucis. Beside her were her best friend, a half-Galahdian woman who had managed to flee Galahd before it had been completely taken over and that woman’s best friend. It wasn’t exactly easy to pass Nyx and Crowe off as anything but people of Galahd; Nyx especially so because of his tattoos. They weren’t all that visible but if someone looked closer they might recognise them as something so thoroughly Galahdian that it was impossible to even pass him off as anything else.

“The Archaean slept for so long… The Glacian woke after Oracle Sylva’s death, so perhaps this was all following Oracle Lunafreya’s death and all… but there have been ever earthquakes. Even waking in an attempt to get revenge, the Archaean would not endanger us… the descendants of the people he intercepted the meteor for. The empire pronounced her dead during the fall of Insomnia, but… I have a feeling the Oracle is still out there, taking care of things.”

Luna almost wanted to yell that the Oracle had indeed had her hands in awaking the Archaean, but it also had been her fault that the earthquakes were still occurring. Nothing could soothe the thrum of the earth that seemingly followed her wherever she went. It felt like a third heartbeat on top of the occasional sharp pang she caught coming from Ardyn’s direction. Her own heart, the Scourge and a melody of earth followed here wheresoever she went, and there was nothing she could do to phase it out. She could feel the shakes coming before they truly happened, as if the Archaean remained to mock her – she could not warn the people about it.

Still, she held her head high. She had confirmed that it was possible to fight the Astrals without having to enter a covenant. There was a way to deprive Noctis of their blessings, which he would have needed to purge the Scourge. There was a way to save him, there was a way to change a fate she had accepted so long ago until the night in Insomnia had challenged her beliefs.

“It is rather likely that the empire is lying. If they catch the Oracle, they will most likely lock her up and use her as bait… for I believe that His Majesty Noctis Lucis Caelum is alive and well as well.”

The woman chuckled as they continued sweeping up glass in the street. “You’re a good lass, even if you’re not Lucian. You’ve a good head on your shoulders.”

She only hoped that she wouldn’t doom Lucis. She hadn’t seen much of this country, but the people of Lestallum and Old Lestallum had been nothing but good to her so far.

* * *

“I don’t get it.”

He was tossing one of his knives up and down almost carelessly. They were sitting in the hotel room in Old Lestallum the next evening. Crowe had scouted around and made certain she could still hit things from far away. Nyx on the other hand had spent most of his time asking around, only to return with nothing but the same rumours that Luna had picked up helping with tasks around town.

Every time Nyx caught his dagger it lit up with a violet aura that would have made Luna nauseous. It was magic that daemons used, utterly dark and the complete opposite of what she used whenever she had to fall back on her magical abilities. Somehow, Nyx using it did not trigger the same reaction however – something that none of the people in the room understood, for Luna was rather sensitive to the powers that the Scourge oozed, especially during early stages of infection.

“By any means, if I can use that I should be a daemon, right? That’s what you said. That humans infected with the Scourge that develop the ability to use magic are too far gone and about to turn into monstrosities. So then… why not us? Why not Crowe, why not me?”

Luna played another card, once more bringing Crowe dangerously close to losing. The Glaive sometimes speculated that even in something as silly as card games the gods watched over Luna – Luna herself said that after what they had done at the Disc of Cauthess she was rather surprised that she hadn’t been immediately turned into ash to join the Infernian in his eternal rest.

“Even though you were granted the ability to use shields by the grace of King Regis, the crystal did not taste your life’s powers. It did not drain you, slowly but steadily like a creeping sickness, an exhaustion that would never leave you. If you overdid it you would feel bad, yes, but would ultimately recover.”

The Ring of the Lucii was safely attached to her necklace. She had put it into a safely locked box at the bottom of her backpack, buried underneath medical supplies and additional clothing. Just holding that necklace had hurt, and wearing it had been close enough to agony. It needed to be returned to Noctis just as the king and queen had asked her to, but for the time being Luna preferred him not having it. Something about the ring had changed when she had woken the Archaean.

“I suppose were the person lending you their power to give in and succumb to the Scourge and infernal desires, you were soon to follow… But for now, you are safe.”

“That’s not reassuring me the slightest, princess.”

Nyx finally caught the dagger and held it, the energy that lit up the weapon almost directly jumping off it.

“I’ve… actually not seen you use a spell yet.”

“That’s ‘cause he can’t.” Crowe put her cards down to forfeit, and Luna turned to look at her again. The woman had her brows knit and she shot a glare into Nyx’s general direction. “While you were talking to His Majesty, we realised that while I could still use elemental magic I could use before, Nyx completely lost the ability to do the same. What he can do instead is – well, look at it. He’s infusing his weapon with darkness. Far as I know, Ignis Scientia can do the same with the power he borrowed from His Majesty. And that’s a rare enough skill, but really damn useful because he gets access to magic without having to carry more than three flasks for an infusion around. But Nyx doesn’t carry anything of the sort around. Hells, I’m not carrying flasks around either any longer. It’s weird.”

There were theories that along with fire eventually the Infernian granted humans the ability to use magic. Ancient Solheim had been a perfect symbiosis between the divine and the technological advances mortals had made as far as historians these days figured. It was rather hard to piece history back together considering the fact that the Astral War had left the world in disarray and the Solheim empire had all but scattered and broken apart at the seams and every country on Eos decided to use its own calendar for the longest time. The current calendar had only been put into effect after all nations of Eos had agreed to it – 756 years ago.

But after the end of Solheim as the current centre of civilisation, magic apparently died out rather fast. If it had truly been a gift of the Infernian then it was most likely transformed into the Scourge alongside his other gifts, a seething reminder that they had betrayed him after everything he had given them.

The royalty of Lucis could use a type of magic called Elemancy that was linked to the crystal in its entirety, and with Elemancy came the ability to conjure up shields and the more than infamous warping striking. A royal could pass their power on to other people – though weaker in effect it often manifested differently across people. Those of the Kingsglaive, Crowe had explained, were almost exceptional in the fact that all of them gained the ability to warp, to cast spells, and to conjure up shields. Nyx’s shields had been nothing compared to those of King Regis and later Queen Aulea; then again the Wall had been a shield that had its power and reach amplified with the crystal itself as magical catalyst. Raised in the year 606, it had shattered not too long ago. 150 years Insomnia had lived in peace while its royalty rotted away, eaten up by the powers of the ring and the Wall.

Whatever magic Ardyn used, though similar to that of the Lucian royalty, it had to be different. And the fact that he was the Accursed, carrying the source of the Scourge just as if there were a second, undead heart beating in his chest, remained.

Luna tapped her chin. “Perhaps it is linked to what you would turn into if you were to turn into a daemon? I know there are breeds that rely almost excessively on magic – others enhance their blows and only their blows with it.”

Nyx put the dagger away, the strange and unearthly violet glow in the room vanishing along with it. “That might be, but… Look, I might be making too many mental somersaults here, but… magic borrowed from the Lucian kings and queens also manifests differently depending on the person. I heard the Shield of the King could barely use magic shields at all. Apparently Crownsguard Marshal Cor Leonis has an affinity for fire and fire alone. Hells, Crowe was more magic inclined back then as well than I ever was. If you’re saying that what’s currently happening is all according to what our daemons would have used, what does that other stuff mean in regards to the crystal?”

He was probably making too much up, and eventually the three of them gathered for another round of cards. Still, even as Luna lost the game to Crowe for once, she couldn’t shake off the feeling that alongside the thrum of the earth in her head she felt a familiar pulse emanating from the Ring of the Lucii, all the way at the bottom of her backpack.

* * *

[22:56] Noctis: say uh

[22:56] Noctis: those earthquakes. those aren’t my fault, are they

[22:59] Luna: I don’t know.

[22:59] Luna: They might be related to what happened at the Disc of Cauthess…

[23:00] Noctis: oh. fair enough I suppose.

[23:15] Noctis: about that, anyway. did you plan that?

[23:21] Luna: Would it change anything?

[23:22] Noctis: I don’t think so, no, but I’m just curious I guess. did you?

[23:22] Luna: No. I didn’t. My companions urged me to flee the premise and by the time I realised that you would be coming anyway it was too late to help you.

[23:23] Noctis: damn. well I guess I did find a royal arm and all that. it’s just that these earthquakes were kind of weird when they began. where are you rn anyway?

[23:25] Luna: In hiding, as usual. Better to let the public believe I did indeed die in Insomnia.

[23:25] Noctis: isn’t your brother looking for you anyway

[23:26] Noctis: dammit, I gotta sleep. got an excursion into the wild tomorrow – think cor and some hunters found another weapon

[23:26] Noctis: gn luna

[23:26] Luna: Good night, and good luck.

* * *

A week passed in relative peace. The earthquakes went from frequent to infrequent, and eventually barely noticeable. Windows across Old Lestallum were properly replaced by now, and the roofs were up next on the list. At least nothing had collapsed for real here – reports had come in that some of the rocks surrounding Wiz’ Chocobo Post in northern Duscae had been dangerously dislodged and given way to an entire tunnel system not too far from the famous outpost. According to hunters from the region some rather nasty daemons had crawled out which made travelling during the night in the region even more dangerous than it had been before.

The imperials had also moved on from this region and back to their base further up ahead. Luna stretched in the warm morning sun. The balcony at this hotel was rather nice, with a table suited for three people, but Nyx was still asleep and Crowe in the bathroom. Which meant she could enjoy her glass of water in relative peace, with the glorious Lucian sun shining on her still damp hair. It would have been so easy to just give up, but she still felt the thrum of the earth as if it were her second heartbeat at this point. Noctis had mentioned something similar – which meant they had truly upset some sort of balance with what Luna had done.

She knew that per peaceful morning was dashed when the door opened and instead of a sleepy Nyx sinking into the chair next to her with a cup of coffee or Crowe fresh out of the shower, still wrapped in the largest towel they had in here it was Ardyn who instead sat down as far away from her as he could at that table.

“Welcome back.”

He didn’t even say anything, and instead took the hat he wore off in one surprisingly fluid motion. If she didn’t know of his actual affliction it would have been rather easy to mistake the shadows on his face for those of a man who seriously lacked sleep. Luna on the other hand saw that those were the fine lines of someone whose blood was at least slowly turning black if it weren’t already, and the strange empty glint in his eyes was that of a telltale aversion to natural light.

“I thought that the Chancellor of Niflheim was not that needed in the empire.”

“He isn’t, but the Emperor would like to think otherwise.”

“So you escaped the country of your choosing to come back here?”

“Consider my curiosity piqued, Oracle Lunafreya. Besides – you are still needed. Who is to say that nothing unfortunate will befall you even if you walk a path meant for someone else?”

She heard Crowe bark something at Nyx inside; apparently he had slunk into the bathroom still half asleep right in the very moment she stepped out of the shower. Luna frowned and set her glass aside. Normally she would have quite preferred to have a cup of tea, but as Nyx had suggested she kept herself from drinking it until she reunited with Noctis for real.

“What was it that you needed to vanish for anyway?”

“Reports. I kind of was to report your awakening of the Archaean as soon as I could so the empire could strike before the Chosen made his move.”

“To slay a god...”

The man shrugged and brushed the hat off the table onto his lap. He truly looked rather tired, as if something on top of the Scourge was plaguing him.

“The High Commander will be at Formouth Base until the next week. Coincidentally, the Fulgurian yet slumbers on Angelgard, which is about as close as it can get in this country. If you were to make a move on the next Astral and your lord brother, that would be the perfect opportunity. Especially if you were to be _escorted_ by the chancellor. Theoretically being able to command me or not, your brother seems gleefully unaware of that. And unlike any other bases on Lucian soil the only troops stationed within Formouth currently are… mercenaries.”

Luna nodded.

“I see. Thank you for that information. Consider your proposal on the table.”

* * *

She had nodded off soon after they left Old Lestallum. When Luna woke again she found herself leaning against Crowe’s shoulder and hastily excused herself as she sat up straight once more. All Crowe did was laugh pat her shoulder.

* * *

[15:01] Noctis: about that thing you asked yesterday

[15:01] Noctis: iggy said that he always had issues with magic, but the infusion stuff is easier for him

[15:01] Noctis: prom can’t use it properly at all. the dumbass nearly killed us with a flask once

[15:02] Noctis: gladio’s cool with it but can’t really work with ice magic

[15:02] Noctis: now I’m curious tho, why’d you ask?

[15:02] Luna: … I haven’t mentioned it, have I?

[15:14] Noctis: sry, crashed car by the street, went to make sure the dude was ok

[15:14] Noctis: mentioned what?

[15:15] Luna: My companions.

[15:16] Noctis: what about em?

[15:16] Luna: They’re Nyx Ulric and Crowe Altius. Former members of the Kingsglaive.

[15:17] Noctis: …

[15:17] Noctis: I thought they all died during the fall?? but ok, fine, let’s talk about that next time we call each other. what’s that have to do with asking me abt the guys’ use of magic tho?

[15:20] Luna: They explained how they used it yesterday. I was just curious.

[15:21] Noctis: oh ok.

[15:21] Noctis: iggy’s bugging me to drive myself for once. I’ll talk to you later!!

* * *

The coast was a surprisingly pleasant place. The air smelled fresher than it did in most parts of Lucis, though the nearby restaurant made the air smell of fish. It made her hungry, really, but this was not the time for a snack. Even if just a fish sandwich sounded delicious right now.

“… You weren’t listening, were you.”

She blinked several times, then looked at Nyx. She’d not even realised he had been talking. He sighed in defeat.

“I know it smells delicious, but we can’t until we meet up with the guy His Majesty sent us.”

“Sorry...”

He shot her a smile before crossing his arms. “I’ll get you one once this meeting’s over and before we leave. But bear with us, we can’t leave for the time being.”

Luna nodded – they had come here for the Fulgurian and not for fish sandwiches after all. Noctis was still on his way, but he had called her earlier that day and said that someone of the Crownsguard was nearby. That person would most likely recognise Nyx Ulric and Crowe Altius. Luna hoped that this person would at least let them go if she explained herself – she wasn’t stupid enough to fall for the trick Noctis was about to employ here. He wanted her to stay still even though she had said several times that the empire was still hot on her heels.

It wasn’t exactly untrue. A dull thumping pain spread to her temples all of a sudden, and she turned around to grimace at Ardyn Izunia.

She had learned rather quickly to phase the fact that the Scourge came in seething, dull waves from him out, but sometimes it felt like he was deliberately messing with her by increasing whatever power it truly was. There had been many cases of Scourge that she had healed, and the Scourge came in different kinds across all of Eos, but most of the time it was easy to put them into categories. Noctis’ case when he had been a child under the care of her mother had been that of a slowly corrupting, creeping sickness. There were cases that were like a violent fever running through the body and just as fast as it appeared it claimed its victims. Others were nearly immediately unable to do things they had been doing before. For some there were visible patterns that slowly crept up their bodies as they turned into daemons, ravaged by a sickness that had been wrought by a betrayed god. Others again lost their senses.

Ardyn’s case was something she had never encountered before. It felt like the cases where the person knew what was happening and tried to hold it back. A losing fight, but the waves of sickening darkness she felt from him were similar to these cases. Yet it felt like the sharp needles driven into her head whenever she came across the fast-acting kind. She had seen that his eyes had first and foremost suffered under his infliction – a clear symptom of those whose bodies showed their affliction. It was like he harboured all kinds, yet none at all, for Ardyn Izunia looked perfectly normal all things considered.

She had asked him if he could do something about it. Her only answer had been a shrug; if he truly could there was a chance that he was either playing dumb or he did not know about it.

He only shot her an amused smile, and Luna turned back to look at Nyx.

“One of the Crownsguard, then? Do you have any idea who to expect?”

Nyx scratched his face. “Not really, no. We don’t know who of the Crownsguard was inside Insomnia and didn’t make it out. For all we know it might be some no-name...”

“I am rather insulted that you would think of me as some ‘no-name’, Nyx Ulric.”

All colour drained from Nyx’s face as they turned back around. Ardyn still shot Luna a rather amused grin as he messed around with his scarf and coat a little, but next to Ardyn stood a man that Luna had not seen before in her life. Nyx, however, seemed to be thinking of an easy and fast escape at this point.

It was Crowe who, despite the tension, sighed and shook her head. “Good going, dumbass. My bad about my partner here, Marshal.”

“Ah.” Suddenly Luna understood why Nyx had reacted the way he had.

Cor Leonis on the other hand sighed and crossed his arms – apparently he did not want to be here either. The smell of fish still made it rather hard for Luna to think, so all she did was bow to him. He most likely knew who she was anyway, even if Noctis had not told him why exactly he had come here.

“Nyx Ulric and the supposed-to-be-dead Crowe Altius. A young lady who might or might not be the supposed-to-be-dead Lunafreya Nox Fleuret. And a man dressed in rags who smells vaguely of a shampoo they stopped producing in my early twenties who looks like the imperial chancellor Ardyn Izunia. His Majesty said _nothing_ about the latter two.”

Ardyn blinked once. Twice.

Thrice.

“Excuse me?”

“Are you the imperial chancellor or are you not?”

Luna had not been entirely sure who to expect. She’d always imagined the Crownsguard as the drier, more serious version of the Kingsglaive. They had been Lucis’ first and foremost line of defence for the longest time, what with the Kingsglaive having been established after her mother’s death, the complete subjugation of Tenebrae and the Glacian’s demise. Cor Leonis was rumoured to be some sort of unkillable entity, having survived effectively every battle he found himself in, no matter the odds stacked against him. He had even defeated several of the Tummelt family siblings, allegedly killed one of them and brought shame upon the entire family that by the time Loqi Tummelt had risen to his current position he had near immediately started hunting down the Marshal of the Crownsguard to no avail.

That very same man people spoke of in revered tones now glared at the Chancellor of Niflheim, not entirely sure if it was the same man – Ardyn had at the very least changed his wardrobe a little. It was still not really something someone would wear if they were with the current times, but at least Ardyn’s physical appearance concealed the fact that he was at least twice as old as the calendar.

“I am rather flattered that you assume I look like that _dashing_ man, truly I am, but unfortunately I am not Ardyn Izunia. I am but a _humble_ servant of House Fleuret, and were it not for--”

“That is quite enough.” She had raised a hand to shut Ardyn up before he spoke more than necessary, and thankfully enough he did not continue whatever it was that he had been about to say. Cor meanwhile looked at Luna. “I apologise for Santos’ behaviour and anything he might say in advance. He is not thrilled about being here. Neither are you I assume, and I do apologise for interrupting whatever it was that you were doing – I did try to persuade Noctis that I did not need yet another person watching after me, but he insisted I at least meet with you and consider it. Which brings us here.”

If the Marshal saw through her impromptu lie he didn’t show it. He and Ardyn exchanged another glare before he nodded at Luna, and the five of them moved a little away from the coast and the delicious and distracting smell of fish.

Eventually Nyx mumbled an apology and they stopped. The Kingsglaive looked kind of odd in normal but practical clothing still, even though it had been what felt like an eternity since she had left the crown city with him.

“Say, uh, Marshal. Can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

“I mean… not to like, sound ungrateful for your help or anything but… how come you’re out here? That day at the Citadel I… barely saw any official Crownsguard. Only the border guard.”

“...” Apparently this was some sort of sore subject, but eventually Cor sighed once again. “Orders placed us near the gates. I specifically had my orders to wait for Her Majesty Queen Aulea and take her to security, but come dawn I did not find her. Come noon my secondary orders kicked in and I was to leave, Queen Aulea or no. King Regis’ orders were that if she did not come out of the city by noon I was to assume her dead and call their son to ensure he does not do anything foolhardy.”

It was an uncomfortable reminder that Queen Aulea had been supposed to leave the city with her, Nyx and Libertus. She should have been there when Crowe reappeared, she should have gone to find Cor and then be taken somewhere safe. Somewhere where Niflheim could not reach her.

Instead she had gone and fought Titus Drautos.

Apparently Nyx had been thinking the same thing, because eventually he curled his hands into fists.

“Marshal. It was… it was the Glaive that betrayed the king in the end. Most of us, anyway; the exceptions standing before you safe for one who had to go into hiding.”

She barely noticed it, but Ardyn did not even attempt to feign shock at these news. Or any emotion for that matter – he remained perfectly still. Too still, actually. Perhaps to serve as reminder to her that he was on the side of the enemy, technically, and that he was by any means not a living person. Cor Leonis on the other hand inhaled slowly.

Exhaled.

“Dammit. I had my suspicions, but… dammit. The reports… they were incomplete. You and Libertus Ostium were reported as missing and most likely in cahoots with the empire. General Glauca was found dead next to Queen Aulea in the outskirts, not far from where a good amount of Crownsguard members lived in the city. But… Titus Drautos was also reported missing.”

Nyx sighed, thinking of what to say next. “Yeah. Yeah, Drautos was… Glauca. One and the same.”

Much to Luna’s surprise, Cor merely closed his eyes and turned his head towards the sun. He said something that sounded quite a lot like yet another ‘dammit’ and eventually looked back at Nyx.

“ _Drautos, he’s in your hands._ Those were the words that the then prince parted with. Gods, if he finds that out he… he’ll blame himself even further.”

“Noctis does not have to find out.” She was surprised by her voice not shaking the slightest, though her stomach had turned in her body. “Nyx Ulric, Libertus Ostium and I are the only living people who saw Titus Drautos turn into the Niff High Commander, the man they all but called General Glauca. Whether you believe us or not is up to you, but as long as you do not tell it to everyone you know it remains… relatively unknown. If you fear for Noctis’ mental health regarding these news, then leave it – I will find a way to tell him whether you do or not, but I would talk to him much later. And in person.”

They managed to convince Cor to leave them to their designs. The man had laughed a little and said that he had expected this from the very beginning and was otherwise occupied anyway; Noctis had just not taken no for an answer. Luna explained her plans regarding Angelgard, and though she very obviously left out details eventually Cor gave in.

“Alright. I shall make certain he arrives on the island. I can steer a short distance motorboat; though Ignis could as well I’m sure.”

After finally getting Nyx to grab her a fish sandwich they returned just as Cor also got ready to leave, though not before some parting words for Ardyn.

“If I were you, I would get a haircut. Not many people here in Lucis will be happy to see a man who looks like the Chancellor of Niflheim.”

“Oh?” Just that tone indicated that Ardyn was definitely not about to do that, but he put on one of the most sickeningly sweet smiles that Luna had ever seen in her life. “Perhaps I might do so. Thank you _very_ much for the advice, Marshal handsome.”

Crowe looked like she had bitten into a mouldy onion as that scene took place, and Nyx nearly dropped the sandwich he had brought her.

When Cor was gone, Ardyn dropped the sickly sweet expression near immediately. “If he weren’t so handsome I’d have punched his face square in. Though I’m fairly certain that a thick skull like his would have broken my hand as well.”

* * *

“Man, this place is eerie.”

It was rather cold on Angelgard despite it having been rather warm earlier. The sun was shining through a thin layer of clouds that apparently encased the island at any given time – which made sense, considering that this was where the Fulgurian rested ever since the end of the Astral War and the subsequent selection of the first king and Oracle. Once she woke him Luna was fairly certain that it was going to start thundering and raining; after all it was the Fulgurian’s element. Just as the earthquakes had followed Titan…

Here on Angelgard the thrum of the earth that had followed her since the Archaean’s demise was so quiet that she nearly forgot about it until moments of silence.

“It was used as a prison in the past. I would have been more surprised if you did not find it eerie.”

Nyx grimaced at the Accursed as they slowly walked across the island. It was not particularly large, but here it truly looked like there had been civilisation once. Luna put a hand on the strange structure in front of her; it looked like a pronged pillar, stretching into the skies. She’d seen that design several times in the past, mostly in books relating to the Hexatheon, most prominently the Cosmogony. It still looked rather out of the place, especially when one considered that this had been an island prison once upon a time, and Luna looked at Ardyn.

“Were these created in an attempt to build a temple? They do look rather similar to the way the Fulgurian’s thunder is depicted in ancient murals.”

He did not answer her. Eventually it was Crowe who crossed her arms after watching Ardyn for a while.

“Look. I know you’re ancient and all that crap. But how the hell would you know this was a _prison_ once? There’s no ancient cells. No rooms except for the one we looked into earlier. If anything, this place looked like a damn grave but not a prison. Was this a temple, a prison, or something else entirely, old man?”

That finally made Ardyn look at the Glaive, and he narrowed his eyes slowly. Crowe did not back away the slightest and shot him a glare instead. For a few minutes the two of them stood still and the tension in the air got so thick that Luna nearly tried to dissolve the situation.

It was Nyx who did it, though.

“Look, you don’t have to answer directly. How about this, I ask questions you can answer with yes or no, and leave it at that? So, was this place a temple to the Fulgurian?”

“No.”

“A prison like you said?”

“Yes.”

“Did it hold criminals?”

“… No.”

“Were the prisoners buried here?”

“No.”

“What about the grave thing Crowe mentioned then? Is it a grave?”

“… Yes.”

“Does the Fulgurian rest here?”

“Yes.”

“Is it the Fulgurian’s grave, then?”

“No.”

It continued for a while, but it became rather obvious that some things Ardyn simply refused to answer. Whatever he knew, he didn’t particularly share it with what he considered rabble – which made it rather obvious that the question Nyx didn’t dare asking would have been answered with a ‘yes’. This very island was where the first king and the first Oracle had tried to dispose of the Accursed at the behest of the gods. Ramuh had lain himself to rest here in an attempt to bind Ardyn to this place.

Luna didn’t even want to think about how he had escaped this place.

She fished her phone out of her pocket. Surprisingly enough she still had a signal out here.

* * *

[11:36] Luna: Did you know the Fulgurian rests upon this island?

[11:38] Noctis: heard something of the sort, ya

[11:38] Noctis: gotta admit I slept through most of these history lessons

[11:38] Noctis: so there’s a chance the old man’ll wake up like titan did?

[11:37] Luna: Likely so, especially since the Archaean’s demise…

[11:38] Noctis: wait.

[11:38] Noctis: demise?

[11:38] Noctis: all we did was defend ourselves because he attacked us first!

[11:38] Noctis: how the hell would we even have been able to kill a damn god!?

[11:45] Noctis: Luna!!

[11:46] Luna: You did say you delivered the final blow with the Armiger at your side, did you not? Some weapons can pierce the divine, and your ancestor’s weaponry counts among these.

[11:46] Luna: Considering you were not tested for a covenant, you… most likely ended the Archaean’s physical life right there.

[11:47] Luna: The body reminds, but the spirit left its shell.

[11:47] Luna: Niflheim was wrapped in winter eternal following their slaughter of the Glacian out of nothing but megalomania.

[11:48] Luna: Since you acted in self-defence the earthquakes stopped being intense, but there is a fair chance that Duscae and parts of Cleigne will continue having earthquakes.

[11:50] Noctis: fucking hell!!

[11:50] Noctis: I swear on my name I didn’t mean to do that!!

[11:51] Luna: It’s alright. Really. Don’t worry, it’s okay. You acted in self-defence. Rather you be alive and the region changes than you being dead and all hope lost.

[11:53] Luna: You are the Chosen. What you do is preordained, though perhaps not as straightforward as many historians would believe.

[11:53] Luna: I believe in you and your choices. You’re doing the right thing.

[12:03] Noctis: if you say so… well, we’re on our way. if you’re still on angelgard, see you there, but cor mentioned you were still being followed and didn’t want to drag him into this mess.

* * *

She would have to stand to sing properly. The boat swaying on the waves made this rather hard to do, but Nyx and Crowe had sworn they would make certain she would not fall. Those two deserved her unconditional trust at this point after all they had done for her.

They were waiting. All four of them, seemingly suspended, waiting for the telltale sound of a boat arriving.

“Lunafreya,” Ardyn said after half an hour, rubbing his temples, “I have one question.”

The thin beat of the earth, her own heartbeat. The familiar throb that came from Ardyn.

The seething pain emanating from the Ring of the Lucii coming in short bursts from her pocket, from underneath her phone. She had tried to ignore it for the longest time, but Ardyn’s voice had broken her concentration and she suddenly felt the intense pain that he must be feeling as well.

It wasn’t very often that he lost his face, but slowly but steadily a drop of black liquid rolled down his face from one of his eyes. Luna watched it happen, and it felt like time slowed down for a good few seconds before he wiped it off with one hand. Black liquid on black gloves was all but invisible once it was dry, and Ardyn went back to rubbing his temples.

“Did you _have to_ bring this thing? We could have left it on the mainland.”

“Unfortunately no. It was entrusted into my safekeeping.”

“Then why not give it to its… owner?”

She had considered leaving it with Noctis. Just to get rid of it and the lives this thing had taken, leave it with its true owner. But every time she considered that she saw the dismembered fingers on the ground again. She saw Ravus’ arm going up in flame, saw that member of the Kingsglaive and felt the flames on her hands as she took the ring off his charred fingers. Saw Queen Aulea wear it for a glorious few minutes, remembered how she had handed it to her and instead started fighting with the only ring that ever mattered to her for in order to warm one had to use some sort of weapon.

She knew it was the heirloom of the Lucis Caelum family, a gift from the gods alongside the crystal, and that it most likely would not reject Noctis.

It was just the smallest voice in the back of her head that whispered _‘what if he goes up in flame like your brother did?’_

“I will. Eventually. But for the time being it cannot leave my possession.”

Any further comments would have to wait because just as Luna finished her sentence they heard the sound of another boat. Crowe shifted on her place, leaning out of the boat slightly to see if they were in the way.

“Well, considering how long it took us earlier, I’d say… another ten minutes before you can start, princess.”

“Not quite.” Ardyn had stopped rubbing his temples and instead had his head turned towards Angelgard. “You ought to be able to feel when he gets close enough to the Fulgurian.”

Perhaps it had something to do with the thrum of the earth she felt, even now. It was still faint – but Luna decided to trust Ardyn’s words for the time being. Thus she focused on the beat of the earth and the beat of the earth alone, her eyes closed and her body relaxed. Eventually she felt it, the soft drumming.

And then spasms.

They were faint. But they were there. Irregular. A thump in the middle of a beat. Thump.

It was as if the earth feared something. Something upset the beat. Slowly.

Her eyes snapped open and she nearly jumped to her feet – Nyx and Crowe managed to hold her down in the last possible moment before her sudden movement would have sent all of them into the water. Ardyn looked mildly amused as he watched the Oracle struggle against the Glaives for a little while.

“Not like that, silly girl. Focus too hard and the Oracle is liable to lose herself. But feeling ancient energies is most likely beyond modern people.” He sighed dramatically as Luna looked at Nyx and Crowe in confusion and apologised quietly. “He has reached the centre of the island. Wake the Fulgurian. Raise a storm none would soon forget. For only the fury of thunder can pave the way.”

* * *

[19:27] Luna: Noctis?

[14:56] Luna: It’s been two days, please… where are you?

[07:13] Luna: It’s still raining here. Storming, even.

[07:13] Luna: Is it raining where you are?

[12:44] Luna: Noctis…?


	4. those who stand resolved

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Then again, pretty much everything’ll come to an end if we fail. Don’t forget you’re keeping the Accursed on a leash. If you die holding that, he’s just gonna saunter off like he usually does and will just casually orchestrate the end of the world.”  
> “Which he might have even if I had done as I originally meant to, Crowe. No matter what, had I – had Noctis – failed, Ardyn would have done just that.”

The rain had been unrelenting at first. It had rained so hard that getting hit by the water stung, and many people sought shelter only to have parts flood. Allegedly some rivers and streams turned into roaring death traps further into the country. Thunder split the sky every so often and Luna watched the rain hit the window.

It had been a week. They hadn’t stayed at Galdin for much longer after confirming the Fulgurian had truly woken and engaged Noctis and his party. The howling winds and the strong and violent tide had made it rather hard to return, and once the thunderstorm reached the coast it had been even harder to see through the sudden dim light. But according to Ardyn the boat Noctis had departed on had returned to the coast as well, though much further away than anticipated. It would have seemed that whoever had controlled the boat had made a beeline for Cape Caem further along the shore.

Luna had almost insisted a stop at Hammerhead, which Noctis had talked about in the past. She wanted to meet Cid Sophiar and Cindy Aurum, see how they worked on vehicles there.

They hadn’t stopped there.

There was something much more important to do, as much as Luna wanted to avoid it.

The sudden radio silence from Noctis remembered her of how Ravus had drifted away after their mother’s death. It had begun when she had started insisting on her role as Oracle, and before long her brother refused to even look at her. The fact that he had gone out of his way to intercept her attempted escape personally had been the first time she had spoken to him in about three months – three months since he had once more attempted to appeal to her common sense and will to survive.

She hadn’t really been on good terms with him since the day Fenestala Manor fell and the smallest part of Tenebrae that had been spared the conquest had been swallowed whole by the empire. That day, however, she had almost feared that her brother was her brother until the end of time, but there had been the smallest glint in his eyes that gave away his fear. He was worried. Scared, even.

Yet he had known about the inevitability of covenants, the necessity of them to vanquish the dark that ever crept closer. As blood of the Oracle he must have at least felt it just as she did to a certain degree. He lacked the sensibility to the Scourge that Luna and her mother had, but he had always displayed a certain reaction to the Scourge.

He’d been as terrified by Noctis’ condition as Luna had been.

She sincerely hoped that her brother was still somewhere under those layers upon layers of hatred and spite – perhaps Ravus Nox Fleuret was still there alongside the High Commander Fleuret.

Surprisingly enough they had gotten in without an issue. Most likely they owed that to the fact that the mercenaries stationed there alongside her brother were trapped as long as this thunderstorm raged – flying through it would be more than inadvisable. Luna, Nyx and Crowe were dressed in similar clothes today, as if to indicate that they belonged to the same group. Ardyn had nearly immediately opened his mouth when asked about the three strangers along him and started one of the most ridiculously elaborate lies Luna had heard in a while. Long story short the three of them were now apparently hired as Ardyn’s bodyguards at the emperor’s behest. A bunch of mercenaries could not dispute that and so they let him continue towards where Ravus had apparently holed himself up for the past few days.

They had been stopped by the leader of the mercenaries, one of the most stunningly beautiful women Luna had seen since the day she had fled Insomnia and come across Crowe Altius. But that Niff mercenary only glowered at them, apparently trying to judge the mercenaries that the chancellor himself had hired for their protection and leaning backwards to talk to the two men. Whatever she was telling the two of them was met with agreement, and Luna was on the verge of breaking into cold sweat where she sat.

Ravus would immediately recognise her, disguise or not. There was no tricking her brother when it have to her, and the fact that these mercenaries remained here apparently under his order until he was ready to receive them made her nervous. What if they were to detain her even though the chancellor was there?

Ardyn kept on repeating how he had no power over the military. Mercenaries were the military, and Ravus had a position higher than his. If they could not convince him that everything was going to be alright they would have to fight their way out of the base. And while they had the power of ancient magic that only daemons had nowadays on their side their chances of victory were rather slim. That woman there looked formidable enough on her own – Luna did not doubt for a second that she could have taken all four of them on without breaking as much as a sweat.

Lightning flashed outside, and the cringed a little. Whenever lightning struck she felt a jolt run up her spine, ever since they had left Angelgard. It was most likely the same that had happened after the Disc of Cauthess; Luna was fully prepared that now whenever she saw lightning she would feel this. It could have been worse, all things considered.

She nearly automatically reached for her phone and checked if Noctis had texted her back yet.

Still nothing.

She was about to sigh deeply when the door finally opened and she heard a rather familiar voice say “Fine, come on in then. But for the love of Shiva, _make it quick_ , Chancellor Izunia”.

The mercenary watched them leave before once more leaning her to companions. Luna and hers meanwhile followed Ardyn into the room, and she closed the door slowly behind her.

It was a perfectly blank office. She wasn’t sure why she had been expecting her brother to have anything of value in a place that he would have left some time ago weren’t it for the thunderstorms preventing him from leaving. The only things of note were the sword at his side and the rapier on the table – that rapier she knew, it had been the one that had been passed down in their family for longer than time remembered. The sword at his side looked… unfamiliar. Yet there was a certain sense of panic that surged through her as she watched him turn back around to face Ardyn with one of the most exasperated expressions she had seen him wear since they were children.

The expression froze on his face as he looked at the _mercenaries_ who had entered the room together with Chancellor Izunia. The Infernian would rise before Ravus did not recognise his sister at once, and Luna took off the hood slowly.

“… You had better explain yourself, Lunafreya.”

“Ah,” Ardyn interrupted, his voice smooth enough that it could have killed, “perhaps it would be best to permit me rather than your lovely sister.”

That glare of barely concealed fury Ravus shot Ardyn reminded her of the days when Ravus finally started speaking again, perhaps a few months after their mother’s death. He had always been polite and never used words as strong as hate, but the first thing he said to her after that day had been that he hated King Regis. That he hated the man, hated his cowardice, hated the way Fenestala Manor had turned into this imperial walkway. Hated how she still clung to the man who had betrayed them and let their mother die as if she were just another piece on a chessboard. Expendable as long as it was not the king. Ravus had had a similar look to this on his face back then, and it had haunted Luna for a long while. It had made her conviction even stronger – in order to show her brother he was wrong she needed to do her duty. Right the wrongs in the world. Show him that Eos was worth all of this pain and suffering, that King Regis was not an enemy to be swatted out of the way.

That Noctis and she could save the world.

“As I’m fairly certain you noticed, the lower Cleigne and most of the Duscae regions were recently hit by earthquakes. The earth still trembles, and now the regions near Insomnia, especially Leide are wrapped in relentless thunderstorms.”

Ravus had narrowed his eyes as the man spoke, his gaze unflinchingly focused on Luna herself. She fidgeted kind of awkwardly as she stood there, like a child called into the teacher’s office for having done something disruptive.

“The covenants, I presume?”

Silence.

Both Glaives looked at each other for a moment before looking at Luna herself. Ardyn wore one of his infuriating smiles, and Luna really wished she were somewhere else.

Ravus knew the price of the covenants. He had tried time and time again to persuade her to seek another way out of this, only to fall upon deaf ears and near unwavering resolve. It might have played a part in how he had wound up so cold and unable to let her do as she pleased, for Luna had ever insisted on the covenants, her slow and painful death that would come with these, were the only way for them.

Before Ardyn could continue, Luna slowly shook her head. She saw that his grin only got wider – Ravus, meanwhile, narrowed his eyes.

“What do you mean, ‘no’?”

“Not the covenants.” Perhaps in another life her voice would have been breaking at some point, begging him to do her duty for her. She had put the Ring of the Lucii on her necklace and hidden that in her clothes for today. Perhaps she would have asked him to get it to Noctis in her stead. “The Astrals woke, but there were no covenants.”

It it weren’t for the constant feeling of the earth and the thunderstorms following her just about anywhere Luna would have been able to say that she was the same she had been before they had left for Insomnia. But ever since that night everything had changed, most of all Luna herself. She still found herself waiting for Ravus to go up in flame like the Glaive had – but Ravus had already suffered for his hubris, the prosthetic arm on his body being the only testament to that. He was still alive.

But so was she.

“I think… I think I found a way to handle this without...” A deep breath. “Thanks to those two of the Kingsglaive I think I found a way to do this without suffering covenants. There are just… side-effects. The thunderstorm and earthquakes being two of them.”

All those times he had begged her to seek another way. All those she had shed after he was gone; all those times he must have cried himself because his only living relative, his beloved little sister, was going to throw her life away and know fully what she was doing. She had hated him at points. She wanted to do her duty, wanted nothing more than get it done as it had ever been her destiny. Doing nothing and losing everything had been her biggest fear, after all.

And now she was sitting here, under the eyes of two members of the Kingsglaive and the imperial chancellor, finally saying what Ravus had most likely wanted to hear his entire life. That she was not going to die for what he perceived as nothing. It wasn’t surprising at all that he merely shook his head, obviously struggling for words.

Unfortunately for Ravus, Ardyn Izunia was not a man who would let others process news first before delivering the next bomb right onto their doorstep.

“Which brings us here. High Commander, what your darling little sister would request of you is your cooperation for the time being.”

Ravus blinked several times before finally sitting in his seat and gesturing at the others to also take a seat – Ardyn had already sat down almost as soon as he had walked into the place.

“My cooperation. Is that true, Lunafreya?”

She nodded slowly. “Yes. The crystal remains in Niflheim… inevitably, Noctis’ path would take him there to reclaim what is his. I would… help pave the way.”

Luna knew that Ravus thought precious little of Noctis. Asking for his help in place of the de-facto king of Lucis seemed like a foolish thing, especially since Ravus did absolutely not have to heed her. He could detain her immediately and have this wild goose chase brought to a sudden end if they did not manage to flee the base.

Much to her surprise, Ardyn leaned forwards and put his head on his hands as he grinned at Ravus like some sort of creature craving human flesh.

“Surely a _prince_ of Tenebrae should have the ability to do as he pleases as long as Emperor Aldercapt does not catch wind of it.”

“… And who, pray tell, can ensure that you do not immediately prattle on and on about what was being said in here, making certain that it is my head they would have next?”

“Oh, you insult me, dreadfully so, High Commander. I all but escorted your lady sister here – unharmed, unreported – and now you would question where my loyalties lie?”

The two of them stared at each other, Ardyn still with his infuriating smirk and Ravus with an unreadable expression.

Nyx had commented on the guy who had been considered unworthy by the Lucii. He had talked about his sister, how she had died in Galahd and there had been nothing he had been able to do. Nyx himself knew the pain of losing someone he was supposed to protect, how it poisoned the mind slowly. The Glaive still sometimes thrashed in his sleep, Luna had learned. Sometimes his eyes glazed over when he fought, for but a split second he lost all focus and seemed to be somewhere else entirely.

“If I may – Prince Ravus, was it?”

“… Lord Ravus will be enough, Glaive.”

“Lord Ravus, then. I… know you harbour your doubts. I know what it is like to lose a sister. But, and that I can promise… I, Nyx Ulric, and Crowe Altius over there, the two of us will ensure that no harm will befall Oracle Lunafreya. We acted under orders of our late lieges, but we are by now wholly committed to her cause. But the two of us cannot do everything. Knowing her she will storm the imperial capital with His Majesty Noctis, but on enemy soil we can only do so much. It would drastically lessen the danger to know that we have allies within and without.”

Luna folded her hands together and looked at her brother. “Please, Ravus. Help us – help _me_.”

As expected, it was Ardyn who had the last word when Ravus reluctantly agreed to help them if they gave him a way to contact them.

“Perhaps you can offer parts of Fenestala Manor to the mercenaries on this base. I can vouch for Aranea Highwind; but she hates working overtime. Perhaps a little persuasion would be in order to buy her loyalty above all else.”

* * *

[23:21] Noctis: sorry for not answering for ages.

[23:21] Noctis: I… got sick.

[23:21] Noctis: like, apathetically passed out in bed sick

[23:23] Luna: Are you okay!?

[23:24] Noctis: it’s iggy you should be asking about, really, I’m fine

[23:25] Noctis: but iggy, he… he took a blow for me.

[23:27] Noctis: he was unconscious for a while so I… worried myself sick. didn’t wanna answer you.

[23:27] Noctis: sorry about that, luna.

[23:27] Luna: No, don’t apologise to me. I had no idea. Will Ignis be alright?

[23:29] Noctis: more or less.

[23:29] Noctis: we’re just not sure if he’ll ever see again.

* * *

Ardyn had been gone once more for the better part of the day, not that the three of them minded. Nyx and Crowe had made an obvious effort in keeping Luna’s thoughts occupied as they discussed possibilities. Wherever Ardyn had gone, Luna figured that it had something to do with the fact that there were news of the High Commander finally being able to report back to the imperial capital now that the storms had subsided.

He barged into the room that evening.

It had started raining again a few hours ago, which was unusual for Lestallum at this time of the year, but nobody here complained about it much. Rain was rain, there wasn’t much they could be doing other than using umbrellas or wearing waterproof clothes. Ardyn tossed the umbrella to the side and entered the room and the Oracle and the Glaives looked up from their card game.

“We weren’t expecting you to be back so soon.”

“Details, details.”

He was carrying something Luna had seen a few days ago, on Ravus’ desk at Formouth Base. It was the rapier that Ravus himself had trained with, that their mother had trained with. Luna hadn’t because she preferred pole arms but she had ever admired the finely crafted weapon that was an heirloom of some sort.

“How come you have that?”

“Your brother wanted me to deliver it to you. I simply had to… run some tests on it.”

“Some tests?”

He tossed it onto the table. The weapon clattered a little, a soft noise that disrupted the mood in the room completely.

“Age and properties.”

Luna had theorised that there had to be more weapons that could pierce the divine and deliver fatal blows to it in Eos. Her spear, also a priceless heirloom of her family, could do so. Noctis’ Armiger and his won weapon were infused with the power of the crystal which could apparently pierce the divine for some reason or anther – Ardyn had shot her an annoyed smile and left it at that.

Modern machinery was on the same level as old machinery; something that was mightier than gods in some regards. The mercenary whose loyalty Ravus eventually bought with an outrageous offering, Aranea Highwind, had been there when the empire had felled the Glacian. Her weapon was a specifically crafted spear that entwined modern machinery with the elegant and eloquent designs that dragoons all across the planet used.

But weapons that had been used in the Astral War still had to exist as well. Thus, Luna leaned forwards after playing another card.

“And?”

“That’s a Sol weapon, passed down through the ages and excellently maintained. Though I am not quite certain how your family came to possess this. Which leads me to believe that your brother knew exactly what he was handing me.”

There were a handful things that Ardyn had been able to confirm recently. First and most importantly of all, the magic that Nyx and Crowe used were quite alike to what they would be using if the Scourge took them. Furthermore, Nyx especially had an affinity for what ancient Solheim had called ‘gravity-based’ magic – something that the ancient empire had eventually used against the Infernian, something that had managed to wound the Astral. Normally only daemons used that kind of magic nowadays, with precision and the intent to kill, though often wounds left by that magic were not fatal.

Eventually Ardyn compared it to a slowly acting poison that stopped after a certain time, with diminishing returns. It would harm, but never kill. Still, it was a power that was to be reckoned with for it had managed to sap the Infernian of quite a lot of power before he unleashed his hellfire upon civilisation in retaliation. Ardyn himself said that this had been the only kind of magic for a long while, before even the gods themselves deigned to pay attention to the mortals on Eos.

Fire and life, a gift from the Infernian. The cold and death, that of Shiva. The two of them had ever been opposing ends of a spectrum, yet Luna knew that once upon a time there had been love tying these two concepts together. Death was not something to be feared in Solheim before the flames of war consumed it, for it was ever the Lady Shiva, the benevolent and gentle Glacian who awaited those who eventually lost against the blazing inferno of ups and downs that was living.

The fact that Solheim had made weapons that could harm the deities seemed bizarre. Macabre even. The fact that Ifrit himself became a symbol of death and famine, of fever pitches during one’s death throes instead of the sun, of warmth and life…

He had unleashed the Scourge, a perversion of life. Daemons did not die unless killed, and taking a life had been one of the highest crimes in ancient Solheim. The Scourge turned people into living monsters that were still people at their core, underneath layers upon layers of contempt for those who were not afflicted. An urge to kill, undying and never-ending; just as the creature itself was.

If Ardyn had truly lived around the time before or after the end of Solheim he would know those ancient laws. Luna had so many things she wanted to ask, could have demanded answers for. The fact that the man was not discarding her now meant that he still needed her.

Leviathan still needed to be woken, but passage to Altissia was all but impossible. Not even Ravus or Ardyn could open up the route for them, for it would mean her immediate arrest and Noctis’ immediate execution.

They were all pondering on a solution for that still.

Luna shook her head. “Whether Ravus knew or not doesn’t matter, but it means we all have weapons that can pierce the divine – I would like Crowe to have this rapier. But what about Noctis’ group? They have won against the Archaean and the Fulgurian through skill and the fact that Noctis’ Armiger can harm the Six. If we are to join with them in Altissia to take on the Hydraean together, then I would like to have everyone on the same page.”

“… Machinery and royal arms. Two out of four – though I am fairly certain Marshal Leonis carries a sword like this.”

“Truly?”

“I have a vague idea where he got it – alas it would mean that one of them would have to do the same as Leonis did. There… there is something I ought to do as well. It would mean splitting both groups into smaller groups.”

* * *

[19:56] Luna: How’s Ignis fairing?

[19:56] Noctis: better. he’s learning to fight again

[19:56] Luna: Ah?

[19:57] Noctis: he insists on it.

[19:57] Noctis: I mean you know he swore and oath and all

[19:57] Noctis: still I’m kinda worried about him.

[19:58] Luna: I can believe that. he was always your closest friend

[19:59] Noctis: that’s not why I’m worried

[19:59] Luna: Is there… is there something else?

[20:40] Noctis: t

[20:40] Luna: ???

[21:10] Noctis: dammit.

[21:11] Noctis: promise you’ll not say anything or get mad or anything

[21:11] Noctis: I know we’re engaged, technically, nobody called that wedding off and I’d still do it if you were down and all

[21:12] Noctis: how do I say that

[21:12] Luna: If you cannot, do not force yourself to. I won’t be going anywhere and I’ll always be your friend, no matter what.

[21:13] Noctis: luna I think I love him

[21:13] Noctis: but I’m technically engaged

[21:13] Noctis: and the king of lucis or w/e

[21:14] Luna: That’s what you’re worried about?

[21:14] Luna: Noctis, you’re my best friend. As long as you’re happy, I will be too.

[21:15] Noctis: … damn you’re too good for me, honestly

[21:15] Luna: Nonsense. Just take care of yourself, okay?

[21:15] Luna: And of Ignis.

[21:16] Noctis: luna!!!

* * *

Neither of them had ever been a fan of fairy tales once they started getting older. At first their letters had often been something that children wanted to believe; that the prince would save the princess and that they would live happily ever after. Luna’s opinion started to sour once she recalled what would inevitably happen to the Chosen. No matter how many eloquently dressed golden Chocobos Noctis would rush into Tenebrae to save her with, he would not live through the ordeals.

Noctis’ opinion started to change as he got older, and Luna had the sneaking suspicion that there was something he hadn’t been telling her. From one letter to the next they dropped the topic and instead started talking about other things. Perhaps they both knew that inevitably they would be promised to each other, and neither of them really minded. After all, King Regis had married his childhood friend, one of his best friends. Noctis’ mother, as he had described her time and time again, was apparently one of the closest friends that his father had, other than Gladiolus’ father and perhaps Cor Leonis. As ruler of a country there were precious few people one could trust, after all, and apparently King Regis had managed to not only find one such person but also gotten to marry her.

Luna’s first impression of Queen Aulea had been just that – a steadfast woman that the people close to her could easily trust, but otherwise an immovable mountain of secrets.

Enough secrets that she had managed to save a woman’s life, had turned the fight against the man who had murdered her husband and who would have hunted her son.

It still hadn’t been enough for a happy ending for the queen.

Lestallum was a city of rather many large buildings, and many of them had an easy way to access these rooftops. Luna herself was sitting on one roof, safely away from the edge of the roof. Beneath that was yet another street, yet another part of this city she had gotten to know rather well lately.

In another life, one where there were no sacrifices to be made, would she have sat somewhere in Insomnia like this, perhaps before the day of her wedding?

She’d loved the thought of it. Spending time with Noctis, seeing him again had made her happy. The thought of marrying him had made her happy, because there were much worse lots than spending the rest of your days with your best friend. Noctis had said something similar to her on the phone yesterday – he hadn’t minded. He had been happy. He hadn’t really liked how his friends had teased him for it, but at the end of the day it was another chance at being together with someone he had only the fondest memories of, someone whose letters often got him through a dark day when not even his father managed to break through the gloom.

They both agreed on one other thing, however.

Perhaps it would be best to not marry after all. Noctis said that he felt like his father agreeing to these terms for the two of them placed them in a sort of cage, one that might have soured their relationship as the time went on. After all his father had promised he would marry his mother once he returned – but when he returned the previous king had died. It had taken a few years for Regis to finally make true of that promise and marry his childhood friend Aulea. She’d waited, supported him. It was a mutual agreement in the end, Noctis said, that the two of them knew that once things settled down a little they could still marry if they felt the same as they did when Regis left to do his part in the war effort. But Luna and he never got to make this conscious decision of marrying or waiting.

The people had seen it as symbol of the peace. A wedding to seal the peace, even if there was no Niff princess to marry to the Lucian prince. Perhaps a surrogate state’s princess would do the trick, and Prince Noctis and Oracle Lunafreya had known each other since they were children. They had been apart for so long that people considered it a fairy tale ending. The prince on the white horse, the princess that needed rescuing.

Except Luna herself had not really needed rescuing.

She was deep in thought when she heard steps behind her.

“Ah. So that’s where you went, princess.”

Luna looked over her shoulder to see Crowe approaching her slowly. “Nyx’s still trying to contact Lib.”

“I see. I gather he’s not had any luck so far?”

“Not yet, no.” Crowe sat down next to her with a sigh. “Which’s a damn shame. I’d have liked to talk to the idiot, but Nyx was getting nervous so I left him alone so he can calm down.”

The afternoon was rather pleasant all things considered – it had rained the other day, but the sun was shining now. Luna would have preferred sitting under a tree to think, or in a field of flowers, but there weren’t precisely many of that in Lucis, let alone near Lestallum. The trees were smaller here, scraggier.

“You look pensive, princess.”

“I’ve just been thinking.”

“About what?”

Luna looked up for a moment. A single cloud drifted by.

Should she really drop all of these thoughts on Crowe, a woman who had sworn to protect her no matter what? It was an oath similar to what Noctis had sworn when he had been a teenager, but this time Luna truly could wind up in danger. But dropping emotional baggage on her out of the blue seemed… kind of like a stupid thing to do. She had felt bad enough about it after Crowe had gone out of her way to let Luna have a pleasant evening in Lestallum. That seemed like it had been centuries ago by now.

Her hesitation made Crowe put a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey. You can talk to me about anything, alright? That’s not coming from Glaive to Oracle, but from Crowe to Lunafreya. Like, it’s probably silly coming from the displaced Galahdian when it’s directed at the highly revered Oracle and princess of Tenebrae, but-”

Luna shook her head slowly. “No, it’s not silly. Not silly at all. Because I feel… similar. I feel like if I spoke I would be burdening a civilian with… excessively stupid royal problems. You are not my servant. You are not even my charge either.”

“How about your friend, then? Would you tell it to your friend?”

She stared at the Glaive. There had been many soldiers who had at least acted as if they were her protectors in the past. Some others had made casual small talk. But there had been so precious little people in her life that weren’t either her own servants or in service to the empire… She had nearly forgotten that Noctis, too, had befriended people in service to him, to a point that he considered Gladiolus something like an older brother.

“I-I…”

“… Ah, dammit, listen to me. Sorry.”

“No! I… I am… I am rather flattered that you consider me… a friend, Crowe. Really. And… I guess I’d tell my friends. I was just… it’s still rather silly.”

The truth was that Luna had never felt this comfortable around people before. Crowe and Nyx made her feel safe; almost safer than evenings spent with her mother and brother had made her feel. There was the urge to lean against Crowe and pour out her heart, how the fairy tale ending was still something Luna would have liked to have but it was exceedingly childish to believe in this as time went on – how she was scared that everything could go south and she would have to watch unable to do anything.

“Just… thinking about weddings, I guess.”

“Ah. Same thing as before?”

“Similar.”

“Care to explain?”

Luna crossed her arms with a frown. Up ahead and way down the streets of Lestallum were lively, perhaps even getting livelier the later it got. Luna had spent quite a while up here staring at people and into the sky. “Remember how I said I never considered it? You said something that day that came back to me just earlier. How you and Nyx are good friends but perhaps you wouldn’t exactly make a good match if the two of you married each other. Noctis and I… we kind of agreed on the same thing. I’ve just been thinking.”

Crowe laughed a little before putting her hand on Luna’s shoulder again. “Hells, maybe you can still call it back on after the fact if the two of you are cool with it.”

Maybe.

Luna wasn’t sure she wanted that. Still, she smiled at Crowe, said that she would consider it. But first they had a job to do, and perhaps another Glaive to cheer up.

If only that strange, faint tug at her heart would stop as she sat there next to Crowe, staring at the people down in the streets.

* * *

“Say, princess.”

The heat in this place had subsided a little. It was still warmer than usual, but no longer licks of flame came from the bottom only to fizzle out once they reached a certain part of the Disc. The earth still rumbled here, though nowhere near as intensely as it had when she had sung; her only hope was there would be no earthquake upcoming while they checked on the Archaean’s body.

Crowe had been sent to Galdin Quay to investigate on her own.

“What would you have done if it had backfired?”

The Archaean lay still and silent. Even the thrum of the earth was quiet here, and it was almost a little unsettling for Luna to not hear and feel it now. She had only been through Ghorovas once since the day the Glacian perished there. It had been quiet, with the howls of the icy winds that heralded the eternal blizzard being the only sound. Shiva had died quietly after raining ice and snow upon the empire. But even in death her element raged against those that had laid their hands on her – Niflheim’s eternal winter was reminiscent of Solheim’s rain of fire, a direct parallel between the former lovers and the empires that had brought them nothing but grief.

Titan and Ramuh had not raged against Lucis for long. She had just wanted to make certain that the Archaean was the same as the Glacian, and once Crowe returned from the checking on the Fulgurian they could proceed to the next step – inevitably, the Hydraean.

That was the one that Luna was truly worried about. The Astrals were pairs, foils to one another. Ramuh and Titan were one such pair; Heaven and Earth. Shiva and Ifrit had been one as well; Birth and Return. Leviathan herself was left as end of a spectrum that Bahamut set – the very leader of the Astrals, the one who had granted the line of Lucis their powers and the crystal. Meaning that where Bahamut had the qualities of a leader, patience and caring, Leviathan was bound to be unpredictable and scathing, perhaps left with a certain sense of hatred for mortals after they had caused the Astral War.

“If it had backfired… there would have been no alternative. We would have doomed Eos.”

“Isn’t that exactly what Ardyn wants, though?”

“I’m… I’m not so sure, Nyx.”

Even in death the Archaean held up the meteor. Much as Shiva had collapsed into the gorge and continued lying there unmoving, it seemed that the Archaean was bound to this place until his spirit reformed and granted him the ability to leave. Gods did not die; there was nothing that could destroy a soul of the divine. The body of the divine however could get mangled, torn in half, dragged across a continent and they would continue living as a formless entity with the might of their element at their disposal.

Luna was fairly certain that the Infernian was nowhere near as dead as they assumed.

“Let’s assume he wanted to succeed. He had the chance to kill me and render all plans and hope useless against his might many times. The blood of the Oracle is the fine line between hope and despair, the guiding light for the Chosen. Should Ravus and I both perish, then darkness would surely consume all of Eos. The Accursed is the chancellor. Which means that he could easily sneak up on Ravus, or toy with him. We shared our personal space with the man. Let our guard down after a while. He had so many chances – yet when I threatened to kill myself, he stopped me. It doesn’t make sense at all; therefore I like to believe that winning that easily is not his goal.”

She was still staring up at Titan, and Nyx walked over to stand beside her. Somewhere in the distance, on the horizon, some more storm clouds were brewing up. She felt an ever so slight tremble on the platform they were standing on; perhaps another minor earthquake. Glaive and Oracle, side by side, just as they had been on their way back to the Citadel.

Back then Luna had thought that her next course of action, once she had made certain that Noctis’ parents lived would be to forge covenants, to travel around Eos not only as Oracle but also as something as close to a Messenger as a mortal could be. A solitary journey through the wilderness, with the empire ever at her heels. To reunite with Noctis, to pass on the ring, and then wait until it was all over for her. For the price of the covenants was a slow and steady decline, a sickness that not even the Oracles could heal. Corrupting, all-consuming.

Yet here she still stood, perhaps a little too proudly for someone who had started anew what had once led Solheim to ruin.

“So you’re running on the assumption that he won’t strike for a while yet.”

“He seemed… intrigued. Something tells me that he was going to wait for Noctis to gain the favour of the Six before truly challenging him. When you said that you were looking for a way to do this without sacrifices he… listened. I wouldn’t have expected the Accursed to make sense. Let alone that passive-aggressive display as we were failing the hunt. Yes, he baited us, but he still offered a share of his power nonetheless.”

“Mhm.”

“Besides, I trust you to be there in case things go wrong.”

He blinked, then turned to look at her. Luna’s gaze was still fixed where it had been before, locked onto a reminder that she had caused this in the first place. Still, she could feel the sudden surprise from Nyx, as if he had believed that she had never considered that he would be there.

“I trust you.”

She had trusted him before, but she had never thought that he would truly stick with her, orders or not. Several times she had said that if he wanted to look for Libertus in Galahd he was free to leave, but he had ever insisted that he would stay here. No mentions of that being his orders at this point – even though they both knew that it had been an order, those who had given the order were long dead. He had no obligation to follow her; he could have left virtually at any point together with Crowe. Yet he remained here, at her side.

Finally she turned to look at him. She smiled, almost a little too sweetly for a woman who had woken the god behind them and effectively guided the Chosen with naught more than a wave of her hands. A smile that hid the fact that she could knit torn flesh together with the mutter of words. A smile that absolutely did not tell how she had effectively subjugated the Accursed to be on their side.

It would have been terrifying to think about, but Nyx had been there. He had seen all of this in action, and therefore he merely smiled back.

“Ever at your side.”

“Till death do us part?”

“Whoa there, aren’t you engaged?”

“Just kidding.”

It was kind of endearing how he got so flustered there for a second. But much like back when she had talked with Crowe, she felt kind of strange. Again that faint tug at her heart, and Luna was starting to realise that perhaps it was a little more than trust or friendship from her side.

* * *

[14:01] Noctis: and that’s how I ended up here, at the rock of ravatogh, together with that creep.

[14:01] Luna: That is… most unfortunate. But I am glad to hear that he managed to let Ignis and Prompto into the imperial research grounds; and even with that mercenary at their side.

[14:02] Noctis: yeah, that aranea looked fierce as hell

[14:02] Noctis: I’m still not entirely sure how that weird-ass mofo ended up in your group

[14:02] Noctis: I mean

[14:02] Noctis: he’s just so weird? and now he’s taking me for a hike?

[14:03] Luna: Bear with it; he knows what he’s doing.

[14:03] Luna: I think.

[14:03] Noctis: not reassuring!!!

[14:04] Luna: What is he trying to do anyway? He just left saying that there were preparations to be done.

[14:06] Noctis: well he let iggy and prom in so they can get mythril, we need that to fix dads boat

[14:06] Noctis: im not entirely sure what hes trying here, but I think its got something to do with the volcano here

[14:06] Luna: Volcano…

[14:07] Noctis: yeah im not too thrilled about this but hey what can I do

[14:07] Noctis: shove him into lava?

[14:07] Luna: That would be ill-advised and counterproductive.

[14:08] Noctis: just kidding

[14:08] Noctis: but if he gets weird I might

[14:08] Noctis: no offence

[14:10] Luna: Well, you would be acting in self-defence. Just make sure to kick him into the lava with a dramatic one-liner. Maybe a bad pun.

[14:10] Noctis: gotcha

[14:10] Noctis: “the high and mighty crash and burn” eh

[14:11] Luna: On second thought, just… just kill him quietly if he gets too creepy.

* * *

They had met up again under the stars, at a Haven. Crowe had returned with the news that Angelgard was now wrapped in what seemed to be an eternal thunderstorm, but a few of the curious civilians and hunters that had taken boats close to the island had confirmed that there was something rather large on it. It did not move, and lightning seemed to strike it peculiarly often, but that was about the only thing they had been able to confirm before they left. Which meant that the Fulgurian indeed lay defeated on the island, with the thunderstorm being what followed his death. Blizzards, earthquakes, thunderstorms. It had rained fire in Solheim.

It was rather simple to guess what would happen once Leviathan was subdued. Severe flooding. It definitely felt like the power of the gods was decreasing from the moment they perished, but it was still enough to warrant worry.

It was Nyx who put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. “If anyone here knows how to prepare for any of that, it’s you, princess.”

“Besides,” Crowe rolled her eyes with a smile, “shouldn’t Altissia have prepared in case the tides goes funky?”

Luna shook her head slowly and started to explain that perhaps the Hydraean’s wrath was likely not to stop and simmer down like the Archaean and the Fulgurian had. Whatever would happen in Altissia it would irrevocably change life for the people there until they fulfilled their task.

And if they failed then the country was going to end because of their hubris.

“Then again, pretty much everything’ll come to an end if we fail. Don’t forget you’re keeping the Accursed on a leash. If you die holding that, he’s just gonna saunter off like he usually does and will just casually orchestrate the end of the world.”

“Which he might have even if I had done as I originally meant to, Crowe. No matter what, had I – had Noctis – failed, Ardyn would have done just that.”

The two of them nodded.

It remained painfully obvious that they had no idea what Ardyn was plotting. Even Luna had no idea why he did not insist on doing things faster; it seemed pretty obvious that he had his hands in a great many things all at once. But for some reason he had decided to play a sitting duck.

Under the stars of Lucis they sat, together, talking about their steps from here on out.

* * *

It wasn’t until Noctis had reported that whatever he had done at the Rock of Ravatogh together with Ardyn that her brother called her. It was still a pleasant surprise, and she let the phone ring a few moments longer to revel in the fact that her brother was about to start talking to her. Years of silence, of rough complaints and orders. He had rarely let that mask drop – he definitely always dropped parts of it when he told her to reconsider her path.

The moment was over, and she answered the phone.

At first the conversation was rather casual; he was merely asking how she was feeling. The certain sense of dread she had acquired recently notwithstanding, she answered that she was hale and whole, about as good as she could get while still hiding from the empire. He was also alright, much to her relief, though he apologised for being unable to call off the search for the Oracle and the king – after all, he needed to appear as if he were still loyal to the emperor.

“And that’s where things get… kind of strange.”

“The search?”

“No, Lunafreya… the emperor.”

As blood of the Oracle Ravus had skills that others lacked. He was stronger than the average person, and the Magitek arm that he had gotten following the fall of Insomnia had only made him stronger. It also meant that he felt the Scourge to a certain degree, though he was nowhere near as sensible to it as Luna herself was. Standing next to MTs had been torture for her when she had been in emotional distress following the death of their mother; Ravus himself barely reacted to them as was.

“I sense something odd, but I wouldn’t quite call it the Scourge. Besithia might as well have written ‘Scourge afflicted’ on his forehead by now, but something about Emperor Aldercapt is plain… strange.”

“What do you mean? Can you explain it a little more?”

She heard him shuffle around wherever he was, followed by a sigh. She was once again sitting on the roof in Lestallum, the afternoon sun warm on her back. But right now all she felt was cold dread – Ravus was fairly knowledgeable about the Scourge. He couldn’t heal it but as children he often helped her identify cases. He had been her teacher almost as much as their mother had been. And if the teacher failed to identify something, it was either really bad or out of his area of expertise. It just seemed that Ravus had no idea which one of these it was.

“I’m not entirely certain. There’s parts of it that definitely _feel_ like the Scourge – remember the cases that act slowly, the ones that mother described as strange gut feeling? I’m getting this from the emperor. But there’s something else that really confuses me about his case. A dreadful feeling, creeping in and out of my mind whenever I speak to him. Besithia’s Scourge pulses, whatever he did to contract it he did it willingly.”

The pulsing Scourge was what the MTs had. It was uncomfortable, like a shot of electricity that came in regular beats. It was too regular to be considered a heartbeat, but when she was younger it had made Lunafreya cry. A teenager crying as her captors’ tools made her uncomfortable without touching her, and Luna had slowly came to realise over the years that MTs were truly terrifying at its core, their capabilities in battle notwithstanding. She had pleaded time and time again that Ravus would listen to her, but in his seething hatred he had ignored most of her pleas unless it was directly about her own life or that of the line of Lucis.

“There aren’t any cases of Scourge I’m aware of that are accompanied by a complete and utter sense of despair, emptiness. It’s like… a shield shattering right as you’re about to take a fatal blow.”

It wasn’t exactly a feeling Luna knew, for her path had ever been barred by walls and closed doors, locked windows and the like. A shield was not something she knew as tool to help her hide behind, it was merely something her enemies used to keep her ways barred. But Ravus, as head of the army, clearly learned the ways of handling a shield. Back when Noctis had been in Tenebrae and asked her brother about his ways of fighting, Ravus had once said that perhaps he ought to ask Lord Clarus for some instructions with the shield. After all, he had said with a sly smile on his face, he had a little sister to protect. Maybe even a little sister and her best friend.

It was a far cry from the man who swung his glaive with naught a care in the world but with the force of the blood of the Oracle behind it. She had seen him fight, back when he still had both his arms. He had been fast and strong enough to deliver devastating blows; a man fully capable of holding his own on a battlefield. It perhaps wasn’t the best against daemons, all offence and no defence, but on an actual battlefield against actual humans Ravus could have easily turned the tide even without the powers of the crystal.

“A shattering shield...” The only thing that came to her mind was when the Wall had shattered. It had looked like glass, glittering in the sunset, raining down upon Insomnia and leaving no protection at all. “Is the crystal still in Gralea?”

“Behind barred doors, with only select researchers having access to it. The research department has been losing a lot of people ever since they brought the crystal here. It doesn’t make sense at all, but the capital’s not under the army’s command. The chancellor is, but considering he has been conspicuously missing lately...”

“Ravus, is he even doing things in Niflheim?”

“Who, the chancellor? Allegedly his department’s in contact with him and takes care of the capital. Things are as peaceful in Gralea as they ever were. As far as I as High Commander know.”

There were a bunch of children playing in the street below. Their laughter rang clear even up here as Luna thought.

Ardyn had his motives as well as a position in Niflheim that was not to be underestimated. As strange as he appeared to the people of Lucis, almost too friendly for his own good, the people of the empire quite liked him. Even those opposed to the war, precious few as they were, at least agreed with the warmongering side that Chancellor Izunia was one of the best they had had ever since the empire started its expansion. She’d come into contact with a few people doing her duties, after all. Tenebraens and Niffs all agreed on that single thing – the chancellor was a good man and an excellent politician.

It made the fact that he was the Accursed even more baffling. There were so many people she would have expected, perhaps even the emperor himself, or Verstael Besithia. Both were people that fit the clear cut of a monster donning the appearance of a human being that the Cosmogony painted as the herald of the end. Ardyn Izunia on the other hand had only ever been an eccentric politician, someone who understood what the masses needed – while at the same time cleverly managing to keep the war machine going. She had often wondered how he had managed to balance the fence between openly supporting and openly condemning the war; it was rather clear that Emperor Aldercapt disliked the people who were against it.

“Anyway. The mercenaries I hired are on their way back to Gralea and might not be deployed for a while. Aranea herself reported back that her mission was a success and the two royal retainers she travelled with have obtained the ore they needed for whatever reason. I will be there once you’re ready to take on the capital to reclaim the crystal. Just… Just be careful once you reach Accordo, okay? There’s a lot more imperial presence there than you might imagine. Meeting with the people who can unlock the shrine of Leviathan for you so you can wake her might get dangerous.”

“I’ll be fine, Ravus. I promise you, I’ll be fine.”

“… Yes, of course you will be.”

“Just remember to keep your end of the deal.”

“The sword will be returned as soon as he reaches the capital. You have my word.”

“Thank you.”

He muttered a goodbye and hung up; just a split second later Crowe stormed onto the roof with a wide grin on her face.

“We reached Lib! We finally reached him! He’s alright, just in hiding, and in Galahd!”

Luna had jumped to her feet and Crowe had grabbed her hands. There was obvious relief on her face; it made her smile wider. It was the first time that Luna had seen so much raw emotion from Crowe, barely contained happiness that nearly made her bounce around. Although it definitely looked like she had cried in relief earlier as well.

“What a relief.”

“He’s alive, princess, he’s really alive and well… I… gods, I was so worried about him…”

Luna pulled the other woman into a hug, almost without thinking. She was indeed trembling, but also started laughing again.

Maybe she could ask Ravus to make sure that nothing happened to this man that Luna barely knew but had the strange urge to keep safe from harm. He was the High Commander, after all.

* * *

[18:26] Ravus: Aranea wants me to tell you she likes “your mojo”.

[18:26] Ravus: Something, something, “having the gall to ask for that”, something, laughter.

[18:26] Ravus: She also threatened to rip my arm off.

[18:26] Ravus: So thanks for that, Lunafreya.

[18:27] Ravus: But she said she will consider it. Something about having considered the search and rescue business.

[18:28] Ravus: An addendum; she asks if the person she’s supposed to go looking for can fight.

[18:34] Luna: Can fight. More of a strategist, considering he’s injured.

[18:34] Ravus: Duly noted. Take care out there.

[18:35] Luna: ^o^b

* * *

When Ardyn returned the three of them had started packing up their things. Noctis had sent Luna a text that inevitably the boat would be ready for departure – and he had said that Luna and her group were more than welcome to come to Altissia with them.

After some back and forth between the Glaives and the Oracle they had decided to agree to the arrangement. It would mean that Luna would get the chance to explain what she was doing in person, and they would be able to better formulate other battle plans or how to navigate Altissia while staying under the empire’s radar.

“I’m afraid you’re out of luck, Oracle. You wish to awaken the Hydraean without complications? The empire will be reinforcing its troops stationed in Accordo, especially Altissia, following the fact that the Archaean was slain before they could do so.”

She nodded – Ravus had told her so earlier. He still had to do as the emperor demanded without second guesses in order to support them from the inside. Convincing him to help them had been one of the wisest steps in their travels so far, and it really started to pay off.

“I see. Well, no matter, we will have to do it no matter what.”

The Accursed watched as they finished packing up, then stared at the window. Tomorrow morning they would travel the long road to Cape Caem to meet with Noctis and his party and then set off to Altissia in the following days.

“If I may make a suggestion – perhaps it would be wise to reveal you are indeed alive once you reach Altissia. That way the government there can take you under their care while also diffusing some attention on your… supporters. If you turned yourself in to the Altissian government they might be able to shield you for a while yet, keep the empire occupied with attempting to get you back under their control, and then perhaps even get the whole nonsense about the sealed altar under control, all while Noctis and his team can move near undetected.”

“Why are you helping me like that?”

The plan was sound – but Ardyn remained a part of the empire, and the Accursed. He shot her a grin.

“I find your little play interesting; it would be quite a shame to have it end prematurely at this point. An Oracle, guiding a godslayer as if she were a reincarnation of Solheim’s very leaders. It is rather quaint. And I do so despise it when a stage play ends too early because someone interrupts it, kills all the actors, and then occupies the stage with blood.”

Those words stuck with her. They filled her with a certain sense of foreboding as they were on the street the next day. No matter how many times Nyx and Crowe excitedly talked about landmarks, about places where the Kingsglaive had fought battles against the empire, Luna’s gaze was locked on the man behind the steering wheel for the better part of the journey. Ardyn was fully aware of that, but his infuriating and unsettling smile never once faded from his lips.

It was late when they arrived at Cape Caem. The sun was setting and painted the coast a scenic orange; it reflected off the nearly perfectly shiny car already parked there. The Regalia again, black and lustre in the setting sun, a reminder that something she had wanted for years was about to happen at long last.

Up ahead was a lighthouse, a secret port that housed the very boat that King Regis had used in his younger years to get to Accordo and hopefully rekindle the alliance that had broken apart years before he was even born, at the time Accordo had gotten occupied by the empire.

“Hey!” A girl fitting the descriptions she had read of Iris Amicitia was waving at them further up the path. She was bouncing. “Over here!”

Crowe confirmed that this was Iris Amicitia, but remarked that something about the girl looked different. Most likely losing the war and being in Insomnia when it fell had broken something inside her, something that would take a while to mend. Luna knew the feeling all too well, but she waved back anyway.

They walked up to her and she beamed at them, nodding at Nyx and Crowe and acknowledged them as “Glaives”, to which they merely replied with “Lady Iris”. Then Iris bowed to Luna herself, almost a little too politely.

“Good to see you’ve all arrived unharmed.”

The fact that their driver had vanished once more remained, but Luna was not going to look for Ardyn. As far as she knew he was still sitting in the car, though she had a sinking feeling that he had taken off and would not reappear until they were in Altissia, most likely pretending he had never been gone. But truly, she did not mind in this very moment.

“They’re all in the house up ahead, Lady Lunafreya. I think Ignis and Gladdy were discussing tying Noct to a chair because he couldn’t sit still. Well, I’d better get you there before they actually tie him up and gag him or something!”

It was time.

Time to meet him again, after all those years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finished nano on a high note! gotta say, this was a fun experience. i'll be finishing this fic in the coming days (it's not done yet in the document, i'm about 3/4ths done with chapter 7 and then there's chapter 8 left)!  
> the upcoming chapter 6 is... legitimately the longest chapter i've ever written, "to foresee"s entire final part which i wanted to drop in one chunk and having to split it into like 3 or 4 chapters notwithstanding
> 
> see you next week ^o^b


	5. the proud, tall waves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Are the two of you up there still in one piece or will I need to glue you back together like cheap china?”  
> “’m good, Ignis… Glaive looks like he’s in one piece too… no need for glue...”

The room was rather pleasant, all things considered. The light outside that kept daemons at bay was harsh, but inside it was warm and familiar. Almost like a fire in a cold night. The room itself looked homely, like what she had always imagined a little hotel run by a local, with lovingly home-made meals all included in the price.

There was a table in the middle of the ground floor, with several chairs having been put beside it. Some of these chairs looked like they belonged into a room.

Sitting and standing around the table were several people. One she recognised as Marshal Leonis, leaning against the counter with his eyes closed and his arms crossed. Behind the counter he was leaning against stood a woman in Crownsguard fatigues, her short hair framing her face rather nicely. Next to an empty chair which most likely had been where Iris had sat before sat a young boy, perhaps related to the Crownsguard in some way. The bulky man with the scars across his face and the dark brown hair had to be Gladiolus; he was leaning over the table and had apparently been messing with the camera on the table. The camera was in front of a blonde wearing what also had to be Crownsguard fatigues but a lot more comfortable than what Cor and the woman were wearing. He had stopped in the middle of attempting to swat Gladiolus’ hand away.

The sound of a chair being pushed away interrupted her inspection of the room.

The last two people that weren’t her, Iris Amicitia, or the people she had seen were at the front of the table, one sitting and one standing. The sitting one had to be Ignis, his posture near perfect, his face sharp and handsome, and his eyes closed shut like Cor’s.

Before she could react, Noctis had nearly leapt across the space that separated them and grabbed Luna by the shoulders. He pulled her into a nearly crushing embrace, not unlike he had when they had been children. She slowly returned the embrace. That action seemingly unfroze every person in the room, with Iris gesturing at Nyx and Crowe to follow her and pulling some more chairs out from under the stairs.

“Gods, you’re… you’re really here...” His voice was trembling. “You’re here, and… and okay...”

Surprisingly enough, Ignis diffused the situation. He got up, said he was retiring to ‘his quarters’, and left – the others nearly immediately followed suit, leaving Noctis and Luna alone for the first time since they had been children.

The two of them then sat down at the suddenly abandoned table, Noctis still trembling and shaking his head. He looked kind of lost for a few minutes before he cracked a smile at her.

“I didn’t think we’d meet like this.”

“If you’re about to apologise for the outburst, don’t.” Luna closed her eyes, a content smile on her face. “I feel the same.”

There had been a million different scenarios she had made up, from the moment Ravus made certain she was once more in her room instead of sneaking around Fenestala Manor to leave Tenebrae on her own without imperial supervision. Perhaps they’d have met in front of the altar, with peace on Eos despite everything. A grand ceremony held in Altissia. Held in Insomnia. Perhaps even in Gralea, or Tenebrae. People crying, and Noctis again smiling at her like right now. It would have been perfect as far as she had been concerned back when Lucis had agreed to Niflheim’s terms.

Perhaps she could have joined him in fighting Titan. Side by side. Then walking the streets of Lestallum together.

Maybe just on the road.

But now that she thought about it, meeting here at Cape Caem with all their comrades alive, about to join forces in taking on the Hydraean. It felt like those ancient fairy tales she liked to believe in until she had officially been named Oracle and had begun her duties. Perhaps a boat could substitute the white horse. And instead of being rescued by him she would join on her own horse, and together they would eventually finish the tale and find their happily ever after, whether they were together in the end or not.

“I thought I lost you without ever seeing you again. I felt so _dumb_ having written that I was looking forward to seeing you again and then not even 72 hours after the news tell me that you and I both died in Insomnia...”

She realised that she had dreaded that kind of conversation. If Noctis asked about his parents she would have to answer truthfully, and that was something she had feared. She could have prevented King Regis’ death, she could have definitely kept Queen Aulea from putting on the ring. As much as she looked up to the sheer determination and dedication to her husband, Queen Aulea’s sacrifice and death had weighed heavy on Luna’s heart for a good while. If it hadn’t been for Nyx and Crowe she would have surely lost her mind to guilt. Whatever she said next could easily put Noctis on the path to ask about his parents, so Luna remained quiet for a few heartbeats.

“I… I feared the worst when I saw the news after escaping the city. That they had found you and taken you out before I ever had the chance to see you again as well… When Umbra brought the notebook, I… I was not sure whether I should laugh or cry. I cried, in the end.”

He put his hand on top of hers, a reassuring gesture more than anything else. The sun had set at this point, and somewhere in the distance some daemon let out a howl as it most likely began its hunt. They sat together in silence, content to just be near each other again as they had as children, until Noctis sighed.

“It’s been a long day for you. How about this, we both just… go to bed and...” He looked up – the second floor was clearly visible from here, and his smile turned into a slightly amused frown. “Dammit, guys, did you have to eavesdrop?”

Luna looked up but saw no one, all she heard were hurried steps and doors slamming.

All she could really do was giggle.

* * *

She spent the morning sitting at the window. The rooms had been split into the members of the Crownsguard, Iris and the boy named Talcott, Noctis and his friends, and last but not least Luna and the Glaives. Nyx and Crowe were still asleep by the time Luna woke up and she didn’t want to wake them by leaving the room, and thus only sat by the window. The morning was absolutely breathtaking in many ways here at the coast, and Luna quite enjoyed it. She hadn’t spent much time by the sea, and up on this cliff beside a lighthouse seemed almost a little romantic.

But instead of enjoying it, she had fought with the urge to scream. At the bottom of her backpack, once more violently reminding her that it was there, lay the Ring of the Lucii. It was a faint headache but a headache nevertheless; it most likely felt that its true owner was nearby. A tug, a fine but constant noise that now joined the thrum of the earth and the distant roar of thunder. She would have to hand it to Noctis, and with it hand over an explanation of what had happened to his parents because of this thing. King Regis had asked her to see it to Noctis, and she could fulfill that duty now – if only it wasn’t guaranteed to come with an awkward conversation.

Eventually she did get up and left the room. Nyx stirred inside but she did not hear him get up, and she slowly descended the stairs. Much to her surprise there were already people up and awake, though upon closer inspection it only were Ignis and Cor; and the Marshal seemed on his way out. He said something about checking on Cid and Cindy.

Cor left without noticing Luna, but Ignis tilted his head as she sat there. He must have heard her.

“Good… good morning. Ignis, I presume?”

“Good morning, Lady Lunafreya.”

“Just… just Luna’s fine. I mean, we technically know each other, we just haven’t… really met before.”

“That we indeed have. Would you like a cup of tea?”

She hummed before sitting down opposite the man. “Just a glass of water would be enough, but I can get that myself. There is no need to get up just because of me.”

He furrowed his eyebrows but remained seated at the very least.

“You’re quite the early bird, aren’t you?”

His expression relaxed into a soft smile. “I technically cooked for the three of them. In order to prepare breakfast I had to wake earlier than the lot of them, otherwise they might have complained about not having food and ruined my concentration.”

“That makes sense.”

She smiled at him nervously before remembering that he couldn’t see her. It was her fault to begin with that he couldn’t see her, and she stared at the table for a moment. If only she hadn’t sent Noctis after the Fulgurian, Ignis would have still been able to see. Although a small voice in the back of her head whispered that destiny ever found its away, and though the path may have been altered there was still the inescapable pull of what was bound to happen. Perhaps Ignis had been doomed to go blind in his service no matter what as long as he remained by Noctis’ side.

“Were your travels pleasant, Lady Luna?” He was stirring his coffee now, and just as his overall posture it looked rather dignified. “I heard there were troubles on the roads lately.”

“If there were, we were able to avoid them. It was a long ride from Lestallum to Cape Caem; we started before the sun had properly risen and arrived when it was setting. Otherwise it was perfectly bland, perfectly boring. I think I slept through parts of it.”

She hadn’t slept. She had dozed off once for a few minutes while listening to Nyx and Crowe talk about how the region they were currently driving through was similar to Galahd in some ways, and jolted awake after a few minutes when she had felt a familiar pounding in the back of her head. Whatever his reasons for it, Ardyn had woken her without a word, and nearly immediately upon realising she was awake again Crowe had pointed out some things about the vegetation in Duscae.

“I see, I see. It sounds rather similar to how our final journey to here wound up, but the Marshal himself said he was stopped by a Niff squadron patrolling the region in search of the Oracle. He did say he was rather glad that these soldiers did not recognise him as Marshal of the Crownsguard and instead assumed he was just some hunter on his way to a job and didn’t stop him further.”

Luna hummed. If some Niffs had stopped them, they might have recognised Ardyn as Chancellor Izunia and would have most likely let them pass. The mere thought of that made her shiver for a second; she was still hand in hand with the enemy who hunted both her and Noctis almost relentlessly.

The two of them sat there in silence for a few minutes until Luna stood up and got herself a glass of water after all. It was then that Ignis turned his face to her and opened his eyes for the first time since she had arrived here – he definitely did not see her despite all.

“Pray excuse if I come off as rude here, but… is there a chance that King Regis entrusted the Ring of the Lucii to you?”

“…!” She gasped and nearly dropped her glass. That sound alone was enough confirmation for Ignis, and he started frowning again.

“Please, is there a chance you can keep it until Altissia? I… Gods, this is going to sound selfish, but I would rather Noctis has the joy of seeing you again after twelve years without the dreadful reminder that his parents perished so gruesomely in the crown city.”

“...” She sat down at the table again and took a deep breath. “I see. I understand. And I will do as you ask. You have his well-being in mind, Ignis, and I was wondering about the ring myself before coming downstairs.”

He nodded. His coffee must have long gone cold, but he continued stirring it slowly. Perhaps he was just stirring it to keep his hands occupied – Luna had caught Crowe doing something similar in the past. Perhaps she herself often stirred her tea when she was nervous; she must have done so while meeting with Queen Aulea.

She would have continued making conversation with Ignis, but on the floor above them they heard two dull thuds, and groaned complaints. One of these people sounded like Nyx, who was definitely guilty of walking with his eyes closed in the morning. The other voice she didn’t really know, but she assumed that it would have to be Prompto, all things considered. Ignis let out a long sigh.

“Are the two of you up there still in one piece or will I need to glue you back together like cheap china?”

“’m good, Ignis… Glaive looks like he’s in one piece too… no need for glue...”

* * *

It was a bark that tore her from her nap on a bench outside.

The boat was nearly done; tomorrow they would be able to set sail. Cor must have not said anything about the Kingsglaive’s involvement in the fall of Insomnia, for all Noctis suggested was friendly sparring. Crowe and Nyx had accepted the challenge, but the two of them had not precisely looked happy when they had gone further down the hill to fight on equal grounds. They would have to make certain that they did not accidentally use the powers they borrowed from Ardyn; with King Regis dead they should by any means not be able to use magic. Luna herself had fallen asleep somehow, the warm Lucian sun once more lulling her into a sense of security she had barely known in Tenebrae since the day her mother died.

“Aw, man, gimme that! C’mon, guys, drop it, please! Naughty dogs!”

She blinked several times, unable to find the source of the barking. Eventually she spotted a flash of white fur bouncing behind some bushes – right where Prompto was standing.

She had nearly forgotten the time Pryna had delivered the notebook to Noctis and then gotten lost before Noctis finished his reply. Umbra had come and gone like the wind as usual, but Pryna remained missing for three weeks, until she returned relatively unharmed, with a handkerchief as makeshift bandage on a wound she must have sustained while running around the crown city unsupervised. Thankfully a name had been stitched into that very handkerchief, and a little research with the help of Gentiana had allowed her to contact the person who had saved her dog; not that Pryna needed saving. The dogs were messengers, after all, though occasionally they would take other forms. Apparently Pryna had played a puppy during her time in Insomnia, most likely to cheer up Noctis before she got herself into trouble.

She’d asked that Prompto Argentum who had saved her dog to befriend Noctis, for no matter how cheerful his letters were it was rather obvious that he was lonely. His only friend at the time had been Ignis, for Gladiolus had not yet entirely warmed up to his charge at the time.

She got up slowly and whistled. The dogs stopped barking and she saw Pryna’s head pop over the bush – followed by Prompto looking at her. He looked kind of embarrassed, but Luna merely wove her hand at him.

“L-Lady… Lunafreya… I-I had no idea you… aw...”

Pryna let out a friendly bark while Umbra’s head popped up as well. It wasn’t very often that the two of them engaged in actual dog behaviour, so seeing them play with someone was rather endearing. Prompto meanwhile was turning bright red in embarrassment.

“They… They took my camera case! I was just trying to take a photo of them but then they… A-A little help, please?”

As he spoke she saw that Umbra indeed was carrying something around, and if the dog had been able to smile she was fairly certain that he would have shot her a grin not unlike those that Ardyn shot her whenever he found something she said incredibly naive. Luna was fighting back laughter at poor Prompto’s situation, but managed to hold it back. The dogs meanwhile returned to bouncing around the young man playfully, with Pryna barking happily as Prompto’s fruitless efforts to catch Umbra continued.

It was rather silly overall, but Luna decided to help him out of his misery, and walked over. Somewhere down the hill she could see a bright blue flash. It looked different from what she had seen Nyx use back in Insomnia, so it would have to be Noctis doing a warp. She passed the bushes and put her hands on her hips as she looked at the scene before here. The dogs were definitely playing with Prompto, but the poor guy looked like he was ready to start crying. That camera case must be very important to him.

“Umbra! Pryna! Be nice to Prompto.” Pryna stopped bouncing about and stopped to look at the Oracle, her wagging tail slowing down a little. “Come on, Umbra, drop it.”

Prompto thanked her profusely when Umbra hesitantly dropped the camera case. Both dogs looked at her, then at Prompto, and then rushed down the hill. Luna didn’t try to stop them; they were messengers. They would be okay. As long as no one deliberately drove a sword into them they would be fine, but the Crownsguard beside her was muttering to himself before finally gently touching her arm to get her attention again.

“Thanks. Really, thank you.”

“No, I ought to thank you, properly this time.” She smiled at him. “You took care of Pryna when she needed it most, and all but ensured that she would return to me hale and whole. Seeing as you are standing here with me, I feel like more than just simple thanks are in order; you considered what I wrote you back then. And for that, I thank you.”

Noctis had mentioned the day Prompto befriended him in his letters – years later, when Luna had nearly forgotten about it. But once she saw these words, Noctis’ excited talk of having finally managed to befriend a commoner even if the commoner approached him first, were still clear in her mind. Prompto may have been a complete stranger to her, but he was the friend of her friend. And he had taken care of her dog in the past. Whoever this Prompto really was, he couldn’t be a bad guy – indeed, he looked kind of bashful as he thought of ways to reply to her.

“Nah, it’s alright. Really, anyone would’ve taken care of a puppy that cute and obviously lost, I just happened to come across her first.”

“Yet you took care of her. And even though you had no obligation to do anything at all, you did as I asked you and befriended Noctis. And that is why I have to thank you – thank you.”

He shot her a smile that looked surprisingly shy for someone who had crashed right into a member of the Kingsglaive and then proceeded to laugh it off like it was nothing once he had had his coffee. Perhaps there was more to Prompto Argentum than he let on, but she didn’t get to think about it more.

“Really, no problem. … Oh, darn. Right, that’s why I was coming this way. I wanted to ask if you’d be cool with having your picture taken? I was hoping to get one of all of us before we leave for Altissia, but maybe you and Noct want one with just the two of you. I was gonna ask him later, once he’s done sparring with the Glaives. Maybe on top of the lighthouse?”

She had nearly forgotten that technically Noctis and her were still engaged. Still she agreed to it, and Prompto offered watching the sparring match with her. Luna agreed to it – it sounded rather fun, and there was a fair chance that Crowe and Nyx would lose to their superior. Admittedly, that sounded rather fun to watch in action.

* * *

The peaceful day would not last. They never lasted; though it was highly unlikely that everything would go up in flames once again.

The afternoon passed in relative quiet; Luna had sat under a tree for the better part of it with Noctis, Umbra and Pryna lying nearby. They had talked about general things like their duties as prince and Oracle, their travels across Lucis as they effectively chased one another. Luna heard how he had defeated Titan when the earth was already shaking as if the ground were about to give in. How it had been Gladiolus who had saved him from falling to his certain death as the fight raged on, how Prompto and Ignis had devised a plan to distract the Archaean so Noctis himself could lay down the hurt.

How the fight against the Fulgurian had nearly turned for the worse when Ignis had shoved Noctis out of the way of a thunderbolt and gone down on the craggy island, blood pooling underneath his head as he lay there. It hadn’t been Prompto and Noctis who had taken down Ramuh in the end, even with bullets pelting the incarnation of heaven as Noctis’ slashes became more and more desperate. It had been Cor who had arrived, wary of the sudden change in combat flow. He had helped Noctis finish the fight that Luna had started, had helped administer as much first aid as they could, and then brought them to Cape Caem and right into Monica’s healing hands.

Well, perhaps not healing hands like hers, Noctis had said sheepishly, but apparently Monica had received nearly a doctor’s education while in the Crownsguard. Perhaps because she usually ended up Cor’s second-in-command in the field, and as much of a strategist Cor was, he was not particularly good with first aid.

She had nearly cried as Noctis continued his tale, the week of agony he spent laying in bed worrying, the sudden realisation that he might truly care about Ignis more than he let on. The fact that he was technically engaged, an engagement he agreed to perhaps thinking that Luna wanted nothing more in the world.

Once upon a time she might have, she said to him, but those times were long over. She had been dead serious when she had said that as long as Noctis was happy she would be to, for that was what friends did. Even with a broken heart she would have wished the best for him, and she reassured him that there were no hearts broken in the process of his realisation.

In the evening they did re-enter the house. Prompto suggested a card game that Luna had never heard of – she had only learned the ones that the Kingsglaive played, the Galahdian ones, and one that was of Niff origin that Ardyn had used to humiliate the three of them that evening after they had conducted a hunt that had nearly gotten the man skewered.

But when Prompto asked who wanted to play, Gladiolus stood up.

“Not to be rude, Lady Lunafreya, but I’ve got to talk to Nyx Ulric for a sec.”

She blinked. He hadn’t even asked her permission, and though Nyx was the older one he still followed Gladiolus with nary a complaint.

“What was that all about?”

“I’ve no clue, Prompto.”

“Seriously man, last time he looked like that was when--”

“Stuff it. Whatever it was, it’s probably important. Whatever. Are you playing or not?”

Luna wasn’t as quick to dismiss it as Noctis, and she and Crowe exchanged an uneasy glance. The fall of Insomnia remained a topic they had yet to touch; the deaths the city suffered that day and the betrayals that had happened that remained unspoken. Cor knew about about – had he told Gladiolus in particular? There might have been a chance.

An hour passed, and she had nearly forgotten about that. The game was rather fun all things considered, though she much preferred the one Crowe and Nyx had taught her. Ignis had just been about to open his mouth to make fun of Prompto losing when the fun atmosphere was interrupted by a loud crashing sound from upstairs.

Cor, Monica, Iris and Talcott were at the wharf down below to run final checks on the repaired boat with Cid and Cindy, meaning that the only people inside right now were Noctis and his friends and Luna and her protectors with the chancellor conspicuously missing since yesterday.

It was followed by another crash, and then voices. They were at first muffled through a door, but then one of the two opened said door – most likely Nyx, seeing as he nearly fell down the stairs followed by a furious-looking Gladiolus. Nyx jumped towards the door, yanked it open and slipped out without even doing as much as stopping to look at any of the people who were sitting around the table with shock plain on their faces.

“Get back here, you rat!” Gladiolus followed suit, though a little slower than the Glaive.

“Like hell I will!”

Noctis was the next to jump to his feet and rush over to the door the two of them had left open.

“Gladio! The hell, man!? Gladio!” His voice apparently fell on deaf ears, seeing that there was no reply and Noctis took off into the dark himself.

The four left around the table sat there in shocked silence until Ignis moved slightly and cleared his throat.

“I know not what happened there, but perhaps we should… make certain nobody gets injured? I do not know what Gladio or Nyx Ulric did to warrant this situation, but I would prefer if there were no… unnecessary injuries.”

Prompto got up with a mumbled “Gotcha”, and then turned to look at Crowe. Crowe herself was staring at the door kind of dumbfounded, but there was a crease in her forehead that indicated intense worry, perhaps a measure of fear even.

“Yeah… yeah, I’ll come.”

Luna did not say anything but instead got up as Crowe did, for actions sometimes said more than words.

The noise outside was clearly that of a weapon hitting another, followed by yet another “Gladio!”, so it was not particularly hard to figure out where that fight was taking place.

It wasn’t until that very moment that Luna remembered that Nyx would have to fight without the powers he came to rely on ever since the hunt that had nearly gone south. While according to Ardyn neither he nor Crowe were in full possession of their true powers quite yet, Nyx especially had seemed to come to enjoy being able to warp short distances again. He often lamented the loss of the shield, but he was not going to look a gift daemon in the mouth.

But fighting a man who had control over the powers lent from king and crystal…

She stumbled downhill to stand beside Noctis, who was watching the scene with dismay. Nyx just barely dodged a cleave. The moment that it took Gladio to recover from the sudden impact was enough for Nyx to shove him and dart out of his immediate reach again. Shield and Glaive continued that game of cat and mouse for quite a while before Nyx skidded around and came to a sudden halt. Gladiolus, unable to react to that sudden change, crashed into the man. Nyx was much slimmer than Gladio, although both men must have had about the same strength. It was still sort of unreal to watch that happen, and Luna cringed. Noctis took that as his chance and warped over to the two of them, shoving himself between them.

“Time out! Gladio, what the hell!?”

“Why don’t you ask _them_ about that.”

The Kingsglaive, men and women who had come to Insomnia as refugees. All of them swore an oath after they showed talent for the king’s magic, some of them even more so than members of the Crownsguard. Following the fall of Tenebrae, Lucis needed a more aggressive approach to defend its borders. And thus King Regis formed the Kingsglaive. What he did not know back then was that he had all but made Oracle Sylva’s murderer its leader, and the selfsame man was plotting the king’s death. Perhaps even Noctis’ death.

Nyx and Crowe had confirmed Cor’s worst fears of the fall of Insomnia. All traitorous turncoats had died during the fall as far as people knew, but there was no chance to be absolutely certain. If there was ever the slightest chance of a former Glaive turning out to be a traitor and killing the Chosen… it would be disastrous. A world with no way of saving it, an Oracle without a duty.

Yet Luna knew that she could trust Nyx Ulric and Crowe Altius blind. The way Crowe talked about the late Queen Aulea’s plan that had saved her life. The way Nyx still followed his orders despite his liege being long dead and the Kingsglaive all but disbanded. Those two had earned her trust, her support.

Thus it was her who took a step forward to speak instead of Nyx Ulric, whose nose was bleeding and who was wheezing.

“About half of the Glaive sided with Niflheim, unbeknownst to all but the very traitors that actively plotted.” Noctis, Ignis and Prompto had not heard about this, and Luna’s heart grew heavy as she continued. “Though none of the traitors survived the night, Gladiolus’ mistrust is not displaced, all things considered. Much like you and I were proclaimed dead, Nyx Ulric was reported missing and Crowe Altius dead in action. But, and that I can say with absolute certainty, neither of them were ever in cahoots with the enemy. Nyx risked life and limb to get me out of the city at King Regis’ order; Crowe herself had been ordered to keep me safe outside Insomnia by Queen Aulea. To assume either of these two are traitors is to doubt your late lieges’ judgement, Gladiolus.”

The Shield of the King actually took a few steps backwards, obviously and audibly grinding his teeth. Even though Nyx looked much worse for the wear it seemed that Gladiolus himself had not escaped entirely unscathed either.

Luna would have doubted her own judgement. Vehemently so, considering everything that had happened following what she suggested to Noctis. But none of the people around ever called that into question – for something far heavier hung in the air now. She had been in the city. Nyx had been in the city. They had both witnessed the horrors of that night, had seen blood spilled and heroic deeds, all done in a single effort to get the Ring of the Lucii and the Oracle out of there unharmed.

The question Noctis never asked as he followed Gladiolus with Prompto was a simple one.

Did Luna see who killed his parents? She had.

By the heavens, she had.

And she would not let the gods take the last of that bloodline so easily; even if Leviathan of the deep intended to take All Creation with her upon her waking.

* * *

The next morning came. If she had not already made a pact with the Accursed she would have sworn that she would make a deal with the Infernian to keep these people save, from her steadfast companions to the citizen from Insomnia who nearly fell down the stairs. She had patched up the injuries both Nyx and Gladiolus had sustained from yesterday’s sudden bout, but neither of them explained what precisely had gone on to lead to this scene. Nyx in particular seemed rather negatively affected and only glared daggers at the Shield once the man arrived. It was an awkward affair until Prompto decided to lighten the mood by talking about taking one photo of everyone here at Cape Caem before they set out. Though the mood was still decidedly odd after yesterday, eventually people lightened up.

She would have to ask Nyx about this later once they were in Altissia and had a moment to themselves. It definitely looked like Crowe also wanted to ask him something but not in front of everyone else.

“Let us hope the boat is big enough to keep those two apart – or that they know how to behave themselves.” said Ignis, his voice barely more than a hushed whisper when he passed her by. She agreed quietly.

It had only been two days, but she had grown rather fond of Cape Caem as a whole. It was surprisingly peaceful for a strip of land in Lucis, and the sound of the sea nearby merely added to the charming, homely appeal of this place. It had a different homely feeling compared to Lestallum, but even just within these two days Luna had managed to understand how King Regis had selected such a desolate place as his base of operations before moving on to Altissia back before his ascension to the throne.

Perhaps this was but an ironic echo of those travels. Once more a Lucian prince, his Shield, his attendant and a young Crownsguard member were to depart for Accordo. She had only heard a hurried summary of it from Prompto and Noctis yesterday, for the two of them did not exactly know much about those travels either. The only living people who could tell them more about it were Cid and Cor – men who had already refused to tell them more – and a man called Weskham who lived in Altissia at this point. The other three had died in Insomnia, though Luna had not seen Clarus Amicitia die. He must have already been dead by the time the king pulled his hand from hers and manifested that magical wall between them to ensure she could not come back.

The only difference was that there was a second group, and that these two groups were not looking to rekindle the relationship between Accordo and Lucis in an attempt to repel the Niflheim Empire. Luna herself felt like a herald of the apocalypse as she followed the group, ever so slightly falling behind as they made their way over to the lighthouse.

Ardyn’s absence was becoming rather worrying, all things considered. It made sense that he did it to avoid the person he would inevitably fight, but according to Noctis’ retelling of his travels they had already met the man once. Hells, she had come across Ardyn in the first place because he was waiting to spring some sort of trap on Noctis – or to ensure that he received the Archaean’s blessing before the empire took their steps to ensure the opposite. This was the first time he had vanished unannounced; and his absence did frankly not make much sense. Not that Luna had ever claimed that she understood the Accursed, but there were several things she had not asked him.

“Luna, c’mon!”

She looked up and saw Noctis waving at her. The others had apparently already taken the elevator downstairs to where the Marshal was waiting to see them off.

“Coming!”

It reminded her of Tenebrae in the past, once more. But running towards him after back in Tenebrae it had ever been him stumbling after her as he re-learned how to walk slowly this was refreshing. It was better than she could have ever imagined, and she had often thought about finally seeing him again. Even if they would never be like their parents had been, perhaps if things had not gone spiralling out of control they could have at least been happy together. Which was more than Luna had ever wanted. She wanted to be happy, wanted him to be happy. That was what she eventually wept for, for his and her happiness.

If she were to die, then Gentiana would relay her feelings to Noctis – but at this point she was no longer certain what she really felt. Once upon a time it had been love. But now that she was able to stand beside him and have him take her hand, that bright smile that was so reminiscent of what it had looked like when they had been children, she wasn’t certain any longer. She loved him, yes, but not in the sweeping, blazing romance kind of way.

Were she to be truly honest to herself, she would have said that Nyx and Crowe both made her feel safer than Noctis did at this point.

* * *

[09:10] Unknown: Perhaps it would be wise to exercise caution. (UNREAD)

[09:10] Unknown: Leviathan is far from a benevolent goddess and changes ever as the tides do, even in sleep. (UNREAD)

[09:11] Unknown: Just make certain you are not swept away before you even arrive in Altissia. (UNREAD)

[09:11] Unknown: Or before you receive permission to wake Leviathan. (UNREAD)

[09:12] Unknown: Do not forget it is you who stems the ever encroaching flood of darkness with her own life. (UNREAD)

* * *

Cindy saw her grandfather off with a warning. It was kind of endearing to hear the woman tell the old mechanic to not overdo it because he was not as young as he used to be when he had first gone to Altissia, and that she would be checking in with Weskham if anything went awry. Luna had nearly forgotten that not everyone’s families were as destroyed as her and her companions’ were.

Iris however made a point to glare at Gladio when he offered her a good-bye hug – she gave in rather quickly and muttered that he had better return in one piece, whole and as healthy as he could be. It didn’t matter how many stupid new scars he had as long as he returned to her alive.

Talcott himself was excitedly talking to Noctis, mentioning something about bringing a souvenir. She didn’t know exactly who this boy was, but he had apparently suffered under the empire even after the fall of Insomnia. But seeing him now, smiling brightly and talking to ‘Prince Noctis’ as happily as he was made everyone around them smile.

Cor, meanwhile, seemed to be going over a map with Prompto. While the Marshal would not be coming with them he still made certain that they would not wind up completely lost.

Luna herself felt kind of out of place, truth be told. It was Nyx who eventually grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to the side a little, his eyes on Gladiolus who was now messing about with Talcott, Noctis and Iris.

“Listen, about yesterday – I know you’d take my side if someone asked about it, but don’t. I started that fight, deliberately. That’s really all you need to know, princess, but consider that his outburst was not completely unfounded.”

She blinked at him several times. There had been many things that she had been expecting. Perhaps some sort of mutual disagreement, for Nyx usually was rather level-headed when it came down to it. Him saying that he had deliberately riled up Gladiolus frankly sounded like nonsense to her, but Nyx was also not a person to lie to her. Therefore all she could do was nod at him slowly to show him that she understood him. He cracked a small smile at her before leaving her alone with her thoughts again.

Why would he deliberately pick a fight with Gladiolus? It had to have something to do with the night in Insomnia when the Kingsglaive turned against the crown, but without asking Gladiolus specifically it would be… hard to make certain what he had asked.

And asking that man was a herculean task that Luna was not entirely sure she could manage. Prompto was easy enough to talk to all things considered; Noctis she knew very well. Ignis was already hard enough as it was, what with his blind eyes seemingly staring right at her at times, and through her paper thin disguise. Gladiolus himself just seemed impossible.

Luna was far from the Oracle at this point. She was not the saint everyone believed her to be – she was a person leading a small army against the Hexatheon she had sworn her life to. Ardyn had commented on it being similar to what Solheim had done, but when she had asked him about it all he had shot her was one of his more mysterious yet infuriating smiles.

“Perhaps another time,” was all he had said before continuing as if he had never dropped that comment. This man knew of things long forgotten but instead of sharing them with others he kept them to himself. It made sense, Crowe had said when they had talked about it while waiting in Lestallum. Much like General Glauca, Ardyn made certain to place his words sparsely enough to raise questions but never to give away what he truly thought. There was a reason not a single soul in Lucis had suspected Titus Drautos to turn out to be the man who had killed Oracle Sylva all those years ago, not a single person would have expected the very man Noctis had told that his father was in his hands now would also be the man who ended his life. Whatever Ardyn was planning remained a mystery to Luna, and one she had no way of unravelling unless he revealed it to her deliberately.

So far all she knew was what he had told her. The story of a man erased from the pages of history by the selfsame gods that had sent him on his travels and given him his powers. The story of a healer who wound up being treated as monster instead of a hero; a martyr perhaps if people had correctly identified the cause of it and reacted differently.

It went against all she had ever learned, against all any of the people here ever learned. But it had shattered her view of the Hexatheon, whether she wound up believing him or not. The gods were not infallible – and that revelation stuck with her. Even the divine was not truly immortal, and if it just were their physical bodies. Bodies could wither and rot if given enough time. The Glacian had already perished, and the Archaean and the Fulgurian had followed years later. The Infernian still remained dead – all that was left was the sea goddess awaiting her in Altissia, and her counterpart, the head of the Hexatheon.

Wherever Bahamut rested would be the final stop of her travels. The end of Noctis’ challenges. Beyond the raging waves and the chaotic heart of Eos… what waited there?

Perhaps she could ask Gentiana – for retaking the crystal after all this definitely meant that they would have to pass through Tenebrae.

If they lived that long.

* * *

Prompto proclaimed that this was life-changing, amazing, the best thing he had happen to him in his life since the day he did something in a mobile game of some sort that Luna did not recognise the name of.

Crowe, on the other hand, said that this was the most miserable thing that had happened to her since the day she had to fake her own death in order to survive. She looked downright miserable as she sat there, kind of green around the nose and with her eyes glazed over. Noctis was patting her on the back sympathetically, saying that this would be over faster than she could say ‘Kingsglaive, make ready for deployment’.

Luna herself was enjoying the fresh sea breeze in her hair. It was refreshing in the same way that Cape Caem had been peaceful, and it wasn’t very often that she got to ride a boat as nice as this one. Normally she was in the back of an airship, often together with MTs watching over her. In the rare occasion that there were actual human soldiers with her they rarely spoke or acknowledged her, but she had been very aware of the weapons they carried. As far as Emperor Aldercapt was concerned she was but another tool to be used in the war, and would her death not have caused riots in the streets she was fairly certain that he would have disposed of her and Ravus as soon as he had taken over Fenestala Manor entirely.

Still, she was discussing the art of sailing with Ignis and enjoyed her trip, even if at the other end of the horizon waited Altissia, waited the Hydraean. This was perhaps her last chance to enjoy the trip. And enjoy it she would. Travelling by sea turned out to be her favourite thing, even if it wound up to be rather dull in the end.

Prompto was complaining about it being boring even as the first splotches of rock jutting out of the sea appeared in the distance.

Crowe herself was just quietly saying that she was glad this would be over soon.

* * *

The city was stunning like Insomnia had been, though in a different way. Insomnia glittered like the jewel it was called by people from outside Lucis; Altissia meanwhile looked like it was a glowing reflection on the water. The buildings were impressively pretty once they got past immigration thanks to Cid, and the rumble of the nearby waterfalls was distant yet close enough to be heard in the middle of the chatter. There were quite a few people around much to her surprise, and what was even worse was the fact that there were imperial soldiers sprinkled into the crowds alongside Altissian guardsmen.

Noctis’ group had changed their outfits a little. They did no longer look like they were Crownsguard but more like actual Lucian tourists on a fun trip to Altissia. All of a sudden she was rather happy about the blue shirt with the white flowers on it that Crowe had insisted on when they had been in Lestallum. Whatever people expected the Oracle to look like, a woman in such a shirt was most likely not one of the things they expected. The imperial soldiers certainly ignored her.

They had agreed to call each other different, more casual names. Something that one would expect from a crowd of tourists.

“Well, where do we go from here?”

Noctis decided that he wanted to speak to Weskham and left with his friends. Ignis said that it would be best to meet again in the evening at the Leveille. Luna was left standing beside Nyx and Crowe for a good minute thinking. She turned to look at the two of them and cracked a smile.

“You’re free to enjoy the sights. I need to find the first secretary. Alone.”

She was rather worried that the woman would detain her – she didn’t want to unnecessarily endanger Nyx and Crowe just by having them stand beside her. Accordo was part of the empire after all, and even though the general populace considered her dead or at least missing at this point, clearly a political leader like the first secretary would have been made aware of her being alive. Which meant it could be dangerous to go find that woman; if she were to choose to detain the Oracle and hand her over to the empire, there was no telling what would happen to any companions she brought to that meeting with her.

Before Nyx and Crowe could disagree Luna added “And that’s an order. Explore the city, do not follow me,” before turning around and walking away.

Part of her had also done it to sort her head a little. She was so used to them being by her side that the thought of losing either of them to a misstep while negotiating with the first secretary or while conducting the rite of awakening started to sound more and more terrifying. She followed the crowds a little after making certain that neither of the Glaives followed her, and she found herself blending in rather nicely with the general crowd.

Was that how Noctis had lived his days in Insomnia until people realised that the slouched over teenager complaining about some sort of homework to his friend was actually the crown prince and not just an extremely bored teenager spending his free time with his friend? Noctis had often talked about it in his letters, mentioned how it was nice to be treated normally until they realised who he was. Luna had jokingly suggested not wearing black – the next letter had been Noctis saying that not wearing black was kind of weird and he was proud of his heritage, but people were less likely to recognise him if he did not wear his family’s royal colour at any given time. Perhaps it was the same with her and white dresses.

The crowds were talking about general things, but every so often as she watched a gondola she would hear someone talking about the missing or dead Oracle. How it was such a waste for her to get engaged only to die in the city, that the empire had no right to kill the Oracle even as collateral damage.

It made her insides churn. Was everything that had happened in the city as they took the crystal simply _collateral damage?_ She had seen the destruction take place. The streets had been abandoned because most people had not managed to get there, what with the daemons and the Old Wall stomping about and fighting it out. There were no official figures but several hundred people, if not a thousand, must have died that night. Those that had managed to slip through before the empire took over the gates all looked battered and beaten, and even Iris had looked kind of numb when she had said that she, too, had escaped the city without hearing anything from her father. Even those who escaped suffered under the after-effects of it, and she could not imagine what it was like for the people inside. After all Niflheim had closed the gates. Indefinitely. Nobody was able to get in, and nobody was able to get out. It had been the first step of tightening the net around Noctis and Luna herself, a plot to catch them.

“Woe those who lose the war, for the most ungrateful winners make the worst leaders.”

She nearly jumped out of her skin.

Luna had stopped to stare at some imperial soldiers up ahead while her thoughts trailed off, and she had been frowning at them while remembering hearing about the crown city of Lucis being completely closed off. Because of her focus on these men up ahead she had definitely not noticed that someone had walked up beside her and looked at them with her before tilting their head at her.

“Good grief! Can’t you announce yourself differently, you fiend!?”

All Ardyn Izunia did was shoooting her was a mildly amused smile before gesturing at her to follow him.

“I am quite afraid the route up ahead is… occupied, much like your thoughts were and Insomnia is.”

“I can see as much. Where on Eos have you been?”

His smile only grew wider. “Occupied.”

“Ugh.” She shook her head in defeat. “Fine then. If the road ahead is blocked, how will I be able to find the first secretary?”

He was strolling ahead casually, leading her back to another road. “Not at all. She is currently otherwise--”

“If you say preoccupied, I’ll scream for help.”

“My, my. I merely wanted to say that she has other businesses to attend to right now, and even if you were able to manage your way right to her front door all you would be met with would have been disappointment. Besides, there are easier ways to get to that district. Please, fair lady, permit me to show you the way.”

Luna narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. “Only if you tell me where on earth you were. Chancellor or not, you are still under _my_ command. Walking off without telling your leader where you are going is a show of bad manners.”

“Touché.”

He didn’t sound the slightest offended, which was unnerving as usual. But his general presence was unnerving, though it also reminded her that she was indeed in control of the Accursed. Whatever his plans were, as long as he needed her it would be easy enough to control the man to a certain degree. It was the hope Luna clung to.

Ardyn did indeed show her a much easier way to get where she would inevitably have to go, a maze of bridges spanning between blocks of the city built on water. It was adorably decorated, what with the flowerpots standing around, but her eyes caught yet another rather fresh adornment of sylleblossoms hung up on the walls of one such bridge. She frowned at it – she was still a dead woman walking for the people who were not involved with politics and catching wayward Oracles. This bridge here was completely abandoned, stretching from one side to the other in relative quiet despite a crowd not too far away from it. Whatever was going on past the residence of the first secretary, a little further down, had attracted quite a crowd. A crowd that was surprisingly quiet, all things considered.

“Ardyn.” There were several things that the crowd over there could be doing, but she had heard some people talk about the memorial in memory of Oracle Lunafreya. It was relatively easy to guess what was going on with the crowds in that part of Altissia. “Where were you?”

He did not react at all for a long moment, staring at the crowds gathered in the distance. They were most likely standing in front of the shop that exhibited her wedding dress, complete strangers bemoaning her death and most likely saying something about the darkness winning. She had seen what Ardyn had texted her – she would have to ask where he got her number in the first place, or how he knew how to use a phone to begin with.

“Talking to mercenaries to ensure that your darling brother does not get himself executed for disorderly conduct. And to ensure that their airship does not fall apart beneath them.”

Luna blinked. “I… you are a Niff engineer?”

“No, a Lucian one.”

“… Ardyn, there are no Lucian engineers that know how to fine-tune an airship. Not even Cid Sophiar or Cindy Aurum could do that without proper training in Gralea.”

He let out an almost dramatic sigh before leaning against the wall beside them. Luna had been looking out of the window for a good while, but now she turned to look at him directly again.

“Perhaps no living engineers, for the only bloodline in Lucis that had anything to do with airships died out long ago. Oh, around the time I was erased from history, I presume.”

“You… you were an airship engineer.”

She would have expected him to grin at her whenever she guessed something about his past to make the mystery perfect, but this time his expression did not change. There was something dark about his expression when he shook his head and crossed his arms.

“And what does that change?”

“You could’ve easily gotten us airships! Working airships!”

“The art of building them is long lost to time, Oracle – again, the art overall died out before your new calendar was created. The last Accordan engineer died without a successor in the year 78 Old Accordan; the last Niff was murdered during his prime in 10 Old Niff. That’s barely four years apart. There were no engineers in Tenebrae, and after _my father committed suicide following my death_ the Lucians were not precisely well-off either.”

There were many things she wanted to ask, but all she could do was stare at the man kind of dumb-founded. So eventually she asked him to sit down on this bench on the abandoned bridge and tell her what exactly he meant with any of that.

What Ardyn started telling was that after the fall of Solheim only one family per country was allowed to build airships and to pass their secrets to successors. Generally that meant their own children, much like the power of the Oracle was to be carried by the Nox Fleuret family and how the crystal fell to the Lucis Caelum family that would inevitably have the Chosen in their line. One such family of engineers was the Caelum family, which predictably enough did fuse into the Lucis Caelum line upon the rise of the Accursed. He gave no specific date for that, but Luna now knew that he lived before the reign of the first Lucis Caelum king and before the first Nox Fleuret Oracle.

Fairly early during his apprenticeship under his father he was approached by people. They merely called him ‘Healer’ at the time, for technically an airship engineer was as close to a local lord as they could be, even if Ardyn himself never thought much of such titles. Even as child he had the ability to heal, something that was unheard of and soon revered as holy power. Something given by the gods. And said gods approached him, still recovering from the Astral War and ready to go to sleep. He was to heal the wounds left on Eos, starting with Lucis. He was promised the country in return for his services, and soon he found himself on a pilgrimage with a handful people beside him.

It ended in catastrophe, a catastrophe he did not elaborate on, but the commoner who had accompanied him after he saved his life eventually turned the situation against Ardyn. He took his name, left Ardyn’s father to live with the shame, and got given what Ardyn had been promised.

“The line ended with my father. He never got over the shock of having his son executed for _blasphemy_ and eventually ended his own life. It was perhaps the best thing for him to do.”

Luna was fully aware that she was staring at him with wide, round eyes. It sounded so unlike anything the Cosmogony told – that the Accursed would be rising in a sea of blood unless someone stemmed the flood of darkness. That was what the Nox Fleuret family was here for; Luna herself was a living seal much like her mother had been, and her mother’s mother before that. It went back all the way to the first Oracle, and Luna had been fairly certain that the line would end with her. For during her lifetime the Chosen had been born, and as Oracle it was ever her duty to rouse the gods in the Chosen’s stead and beg their favour once more. To show that humanity had learned from Solheim’s mistakes, that Eos was worth saving.

She shook her head, slowly. “Could you… could you build one?”

“I would quite prefer not to. It takes time, time neither you nor I can afford, and I am fairly certain that your friend cannot afford it either. You feel it. How the earth marches to its own beat, how every thunder makes lightning run up and down your body. That is the price of blasphemy; that which foolish mortals suffer if they dare messing with the divine. The curse of your bloodline.” He shot her a crooked grin before getting up. “The first secretary will be back around tomorrow, I’m certain. Perhaps try not to get nearly caught then.”

* * *

[17:55] Noctis: man you gotta come to the maagho later

[17:55] Noctis: its really cool and the food’s fantastic

[17:55] Noctis: maybe for dinner?

[17:55] Noctis: bring crowe and nyx!

* * *

[17:59] Ravus: I’m sorry.

[17:59] Ravus: Orders. I’ll be in Altissia within the next few hours.

[17:59] Ravus: Emperor Aldercapt insisted on making certain the Hydraean would fall by our hands.

[17:59] Ravus: He still seems to believe that you’re waking them for the covenants.

[18:00] Ravus: Make certain you and yours don’t make grave mistakes.

[18:00] Ravus: Please, be careful. Imperial activity is about to increase.

* * *

The dress was as pristinely white as it had been when it had been delivered to Tenebrae for her to try on. She remembered seeing it and being almost childishly excited – it was her ticket out, it was her reason to see Noctis again. It made her happy in ways that she didn’t really understand and called perhaps a resurgence of the feelings she had had when she was younger.

All she felt now standing before it was… bitterness.

The dress felt cursed, for it had been the reason she had been in Insomnia. It had perhaps not been the reason why all those people died, but it felt like a factor. All those members of the Kingsglaive who had been attacked by their own comrades on the airship Glauca had taken her to. They would have died anyway as soon as the insurgence started, but back then, on the airship, it had truly felt like these people were dying because of her. If only she had had the courage to use her own magic then, or had snagged a weapon of some sort, she would have helped Nyx. All she had back then was her protector and the unreal bravery that Crowe kept claiming she had been blessed with.

All she had now standing before that wedding dress was more than she ever had before in her life, but it would be so easy to lose. For the first time since the day Tenebrae fell Ravus had apologised before explaining himself. She’d been staring at the phone for a good minute just re-reading that first line; it seemed kind of surreal that her brother would willingly talk to her again or even go as far as warning her about things that would happen. She had kind of enlisted him like she had done with the Accursed, but Ravus had looked so relieved when she had said that there were no covenants being forged and there was a fair chance she could make it out alive.

He was her only living family, after all.

That dress was just a reminder that everyone else’s families had suffered tremendous blows. Gladiolus still had his sister, but Ignis’ only relative had been part of the council. She’d seen the council, almost all dead or dying on the ground as she had burst into the room with Nyx. Prompto was a commoner and hearing about common people – even if they only were his adoptive parents – was hard following the embargo on news from within. Talcott’s uncle had been _murdered_ by an imperial commander when he feigned ignorance and no relation to House Amicitia and no knowledge about the runaway prince’s whereabouts. All those people all across Lucis.

And here she stood in a crowd staring at her own wedding dress, some people _openly sobbing_ about her death being an injustice. If she were less conscious about her cover she would have yelled at these people, though it seemed so unlike her to tremble at these false injustices. Something about this day had changed her way of thinking.

Someone put a hand on her shoulder, and Luna did not even have to turn around to recognise Nyx’s unusually warm hands. She merely tilted her head with a sigh.

“I had a feeling you’d be here. Come on, let’s go. Crowe and Ignis are waiting at the Leveille ‘cause someone wants to invite us all for dinner.”

She finally turned to look at him, and he offered her a small grin. It looked more like the subdued amount of emotion he showed when he had been assigned to be her bodyguard back in the Citadel, back when his orders had been to protect but not to get attached. His gaze darted to the wedding dress and the smile died on his face, almost as if he realised that it seemed kind of inappropriate given the situation, and then offered her a hand.

She took it for once. Nyx was one of the three people she felt safe around – and the third was most likely still in Tenebrae, feeling the terror from earth and heavens and soon from the deep. He must have noticed her gloomy mood, for after a short while he cleared his throat.

“So, we’ve been thinking. You used to have your hair done rather elegantly, but since we fled the crown city you’ve been having it open. It looks really nice, but… isn’t long hair kind of bad to fight with?” It was, but instead of saying anything she looked at him as they walked hand in hand. “Crowe and I spent most of the day brainstorming together, and like, maybe we should try getting you a new haircut. If you want to! But there’s a few rather elegant Galahdian-style ones that… well, we thought it’d look good on you.”

He looked uncharacteristically embarrassed having said that, which was kind of endearing.

“Well, once this is over… I don’t see why not.” She squeezed his hand lightly.

That was seemingly the moment he realised he was holding her hand, and the two of them most likely looked like the couples walking around town in the sunset. He let go of her hand and took a step away, avoiding looking at her. She couldn’t really see from where she walked but he seemed rather flustered, muttering something about getting to the Leveille right away and nearly bolting off after having said that.

* * *

The Maagho was a quaint place, with the lights of the city, the bar itself, and the stars above reflecting on the canals surrounding it. Whoever Weskham had had to pay a fortune to to get this place, it was worth it in the end. There was even a market selling ingredients and fish nearby, giving the Maagho the atmosphere of a place you could easily meet with friends and strangers and talk about things that you had in common. It didn’t help that Weskham’s menu was made up of several delicacies ranging from affordable to outrageously expensive, so even the most snobbish rich people from the empire who insisted on only buying the most expensive things would have something they could order. Or, if it just was a rich person trying things out.

It was painfully obvious that this man was more intelligent than he let on, which was to be expected from someone who had travelled with the then Prince Regis to attempt to rekindle relations between Accordo and Lucis. He also seemed to be a rather good sport, going as far as having asked about their code names while in the city so they would not immediately be uncovered by some passing imperial and arrested for their troubles. He was standing next to the table that Noctis, Prompto, Ignis and Gladiolus sat around, talking about Altissia’s sights at large and some other Accordan cities, trade under the imperial embargo. It was apparently rather hard to come by Lucian goods these days, just as all across Lucis there was a severe lack of goods from imperial surrogate states such as Tenebrae.

It meant several things to all countries, but as Ignis had asked the man to, he was now talking about how it affected dishes made by restaurant owners. Apparently one rather famous restaurant had to close down because they were unable to adapt and recreate their dishes without a herb that grew only around Ravatogh.

Luna herself was staring at her dish. It looked delicious, but that was to be expected from seafood in Altissia. She had mostly decided on it on a whim, but once Weskham had set it down in front of her her appetite had all but vanished. Nyx made a point to look away from her – he was still embarrassed from earlier, it seemed, and his food went mostly untouched as well. The only one who had worked up a good appetite and had all but immediately dug into her dish was Crowe.

But she, too, stopped after a while and stared at Nyx until the other Glaive got up to stretch his legs as he said. Once he was gone and Weskham’s conversation went on to how he had personally changed some of his dishes with the limited availability of the Ravatoghan herb Luna hadn’t caught the name of, Crowe tilted her head.

“What’s up with the two of you?”

“…?”

“Neither of you’ve eaten, and Nyx normally isn’t one to skip food at all. Hell, the entire world could be burning down and he’d be eating, probably, though not as much as Lib. What’s gotten you two in such a mood?”

Prompto had started complaining about the topic being too dry, loudly, and was currently being punched in the arm by Noctis. Luna herself shook her head with a sigh and shrugged.

“I’m not entirely certain.”

“Whatever it was, it must be pretty heavy on your mind. C’mon, you were so excited to try that fish earlier – at least try it a little. Otherwise it’ll just have gone to waste.”

She had a point, Luna admitted. While she still wasn’t entirely sure why Nyx had reacted the way he had, letting her food go to waste would be a show of bad manners. Especially after all the trouble Weskham went through to perfect the recipe even without the original ingredients.

Back in Tenebrae most of what she had eaten was local produce. The empire made certain that it was enough, but Luna had quickly acquired a taste for fish during her travels to the outer regions. Those regions of Tenebrae that did not rely on agriculture were all at the shores, far from the train tracks that connected the entire continent to Gralea. Those places had been amongst her favourites, and this particular dish tasted kind of what the regional population had made. There was definitely a hint of Ulwaat berries somewhere – Luna would recognise that taste just about anywhere in the world.

“That’s much better.” Crowe started grinning.

“Mhm?”

“That smile. You definitely look stunning to begin with, but that uninhibited smile when you’re doing something you enjoy is just--” The Glaive stopped, her expression going from that happy grin to mild terror. “A-Actually. I oughta check on Nyx.”

And with that she left, leaving Luna just about as confused as she had been when Nyx had nearly ran away from her earlier.

* * *

The next day started overcast. It looked like rain, but Luna felt a brimming energy – this was going to build up to be a thunderstorm, and the energy made her shiver. Out here in Altissia the thrum of the earth had significantly quieted down, to a point she barely felt it. But now that there was at thunderstorm she once more was faced with the reality of what had happened in the last weeks. This was the Fulgurian’s reminder, an endless reminder of the crimes she had committed.

Someone knocked on her room’s door – the Leveille was a pleasant place, and they had been able to afford separate rooms for all of them, though Noctis’ group insisted on staying together in one.

She opened the door to see Noctis. It was suspiciously early for him to be up, but she figured that something was up with him. At the very least he seemed not to emanate any sort of Scourge infection, which was a major relief.

“Can I come in? I know it’s early, but...”

“No, no, come on in, I don’t mind.”

He sat down on a chair in the room while Luna made her way back to the bed to sit on that. She was glad she was always early to rise because it meant that she was usually dressed and ready to go at any moment’s notice, and Noctis seemed to take note of how efficiently she had placed her belongings. Packing up took less than five minutes, perhaps even less if she was in a hurry. It made moving about much easier in the past, and her duties as Oracle often required fast reactions if someone’s condition were to deteriorate. It also left the illusion of her actually having been on the run for a while, a lie she would have to perpetuate for a while yet until she could tell Noctis the whole truth.

“What’s the matter? Normally you… sleep longer.”

He scratched the back of his neck almost embarrassedly before tilting his head back a little to stare at the ceiling lamp. Though it was overcast it was still bright enough to not require any other light sources. “Something woke me up, and the tension in the air made me unable to go back to sleep.”

It was rather clear that he meant the feeling of an incoming thunderstorm, judging by how his eyes darted to the window for a moment before he shot her a tired smile. There were many things she could have said in that very moment, but it was rather clear that she needed to address this properly, once and for all. Not with all the details quite yet, since she was not fully aware of everything relating to the situation, but yesterday’s conversation with the once more absent Accursed had given her a vague idea of what was truly going on. It was important that he knew what awaited them, and if she left out the true reason for doing as she did – both him and her dying in the process – it would work.

Luna let out a small sigh. “You can feel it too. The heavens weep, the earth’s heartbeat rolls. If all goes according to plan the depths will screech at us.”

Noctis’ eyes widened. “That… Yeah. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. You’re the Oracle – you should knot what kind of stuff.”

“I should, theoretically. I’m not entirely sure, though, so all I can offer are speculations. But what I can say with absolute certainty is that following your defeat of the Archaean and the Fulgurian we started feeling their elements somehow. How exactly this happened remains a mystery to me, but… I have a theory.” She took a deep breath and folded her hands, avoiding looking at Noctis directly. “Fire purged Solheim; what stopped the flames was the death of the Infernian’s physical body. There are effectively no surviving records of what truly happened during the Astral War, so I cannot say for certain, but perhaps… perhaps the people who had their hands in defeating their former benefactor would feel fire. No longer a source of warmth and safety, but a reminder of their crimes. We are not being punished, otherwise earthquakes would have torn the earth asunder entirely, and thunderstorms would have drowned that which survived the earthquakes.”

He blinked slowly. “Then what is it, if not punishment?”

“A… warning. They do not speak to us directly for right after being slain the gods take a while to… recover enough to speak once more, but… I felt nothing of the sort following the Glacian’s demise. No Oracle was recorded feeling uneasy around fire…”

That was when she realised something. Ardyn had vanished and taken Noctis to the Rock of Ravatogh while Ignis and Prompto had been sent to rendezvous with Aranea for a scavenging mission and while Gladiolus had been made aware of the Proving Grounds and thus had met with Cor. Ravatogh was known for its volcanic activity – she nearly cursed herself once she realised the correlation.

“Ardyn took you to meet with Ifrit, didn’t he.”

Noctis again blinked, then stared at the floor for a good minute. “I think he tried to. We got where he wanted us to get, but in the end nothing happened and he said that staying here too long was too dangerous for me. So he and I turned around. That was the day after I texted you and said that if he continued being weird I might have to toss him in the lava – I felt kind of bad. But he was in a terrible overall mood for most of the descent until we were nearly out of the path and close to the roads again. I didn’t really get it, but… yeah. I think he tried to take me to the Infernian, or whatever remains of him.”

She had a fair feeling that Ardyn, as one of the most prominent sources of the Scourge known to man, would know the true source of it. She just had never considered that much like Shiva, Ifrit would have been able to at least talk to people. Perhaps even recover a body if time permitted. Shiva had chosen the body of a messenger, perhaps she had done so following the Astral War even. Through the entire history of Nox Fleuret Oracles Gentiana appeared on nearly every page, often as guardian, sometimes as teacher, always as something divinely led. If Shiva could do that as she recovered and even after her physical form had been slain, there was a fair chance that Ifrit could have done something similar following the Astral War.

Whatever had happened to Ardyn that led to him being accused of blasphemy and whatever else they put on his slate to make his transition from saviour to Accursed smoother, the gods had had their hands in it. All six of them.

And all six of them had their hands in the prophecy of the Chosen led by the Oracle, though Ifrit was on the opposing side. They knew what they were doing, they knew what kind of burden they had put squarely on the shoulders of two mortals. Though she had ever been prepared for it, part of her always wanted to live. Maybe not to be old, maybe not happily, but she wanted to live.

Noctis didn’t even know that the both of them would have to die for this prophecy. King Regis had known and deliberately not told his son. No person, no creature should be born for the sole purpose of dying, but this was precisely what this prophecy entailed.

It took her a few times to calm down enough internally to look at Noctis again. He was once more staring out of the window – it had started to rain.

“You would have needed the approval of the entire Hexatheon anyway. Or an admit of defeat in some way of another from the Infernian. I would have assumed that… Ifrit would wait until you had the other five’s approval before challenging you to a fight together with the Accursed.”

“That’s another thing I don’t get. What is that Accursed? Like, a person? It can’t be a person. It has to be a daemon.”

What precisely was Ardyn Izunia? A former Chosen from another time – a daemon that waited in the dark to tear all apart. He had not made any moves. He had neither actively helped nor hindered her. All he ever repeated was that he was curious to see where this was going, though sometimes after saying that his eyes filled with a dark, almost swirling hatred that he seemingly did not let escape him. He compared it to a stage play often, and that he would rather see it to its conclusion, whatever that may be, but… For some reason she felt like there was a good amount of critical information that he did not let slip past. What he had told her so far had been calculated – bits and pieces of information, enough to answer some questions but also enough to raise new ones.

“I don’t know.” That wasn’t a lie. She had no idea what this man’s deal was, though she did remember the day she had ordered him shot with absolute clarity. “Whatever the Accursed is, they might merely be hiding amongst us mortals, waiting.”

Oracles were the living shield against the darkness. Luna would have died to the covenants sooner or later, and somehow she sincerely doubted that Ardyn would have truly let her do as she pleased. She could clearly see herself skewered on some sort of weapon after a covenant had been forged, yet another bump in the road for the man. Noctis was a descendant of the person who had betrayed the Accursed. Luna was the person Noctis would have most likely tried to save if she had carried on and merely awoken the gods – and the Accursed was ever described as creation, as creature that drained hope and light.

The Oracle was Eos’ last bastion of light. Behind Luna’s life lay but an endless abyss ready to flood Eos, and the only thing that could pierce, let alone drive back this swirling darkness would be the Chosen in full possession of his powers. She had ever been an obstacle, naught more than a floodgate to be opened by ending her life. That was all she had been prepared for by her mother and then Gentiana, that was the reason her brother had nearly lost his mind and willingly gone to work with the enemy that had killed their mother. For King Regis had been the reason the empire had come to Fenestala Manor in the first place – but it was his son who was the Chosen, whose son would be the reason that Luna would inevitably succumb to something and die for the good of Eos.

She shook her head slowly. “Whatever the Accursed is, we can assume that we must have… confused it. Upset the power balance. That is why we go without being interrupted, perhaps that is why we feel earth and heaven so intensely.”

Lightning lit up the skies outside, followed near immediately by thunder. A spark of electricity ran up her spine and both she and Noctis shivered as they sat in the hotel room.

* * *

In the end, Luna did not have to find the first secretary. Camelia Claustra found them first.

They had agreed to plan at the Maagho where Weskham and his knowledge of the city could help them, so they had gone there before the official opening time. They were greeted by not only Weskham by himself but also by a smartly dressed woman who seemed to be around the barkeeper’s age – she almost immediately introduced herself as the first secretary of Altissia, one of the highest positions one could afford in Accordo.

She almost jokingly told Weskham that it was not a good show of manners to not tell her that he had such esteemed and distinguished guests; guests sought by the empire.

“The High Commander arrived a few hours ago. If we find both king and Oracle we are to hand them over.”

There was the slightest movement from Gladiolus and Nyx. Though the two of them did not speak at all still they were both trained as bodyguards of Noctis and Luna respectively. If the first secretary’s guards were to move the two of them were ready to immediately intercept anything funny they might try. Surprisingly enough, the woman shot a glance at the two men who looked ready to attack at any moment, and then smiled at the rest of the group.

“I have no intention to comply with such childish demands. I would merely like to hear what the king and the Oracle have to say for themselves, for I am fairly certain that I know why the two of you are here.”

Luna did not know this woman, but she immediately felt a wave of respect hit her. Accordo and therefore Altissia were technically under the empire’s control. Though they had been granted a measure of freedom to do as they pleased as long as they did not directly conspire with the empire’s sole remaining enemy, Lucis, they were still under imperial occupation. Still, this woman had realised what was going on once Ravus had arrived and apparently made a direct beeline for the only place she would know at least the king of Lucis to go to. After all, Weskham had been one of King Regis’ retainers in the past, much like Ignis and Gladiolus were now.

This woman must have felt like she had won in the lottery when she had found not only the king but also the Oracle just now. It meant that she would be able to talk to them without having the empire interrupt her. Which was, all things considered, the best for all of them. Noctis and Luna needed to ask her about opening the altar for them, after all. It was almost a given that the city would suffer under Leviathan no matter what; she had never been the most benevolent of the Hexatheon. As mysterious and deadly as the deep she came from and would ever be from.

It was Ignis who answered for the group, adjusting the sunglasses he wore in public. “It is not hard to guess, no, but you knowing our situation and plight will be immensely helpful to speed things up. Speed is sadly of the essence.”

With that she invited them to their estate later on – she said something about making certain there were no imperials to impede the group later on, but Luna managed to banish that fear by saying that she hat scouted the place out yesterday to look for easy ways to get there, and if worst came to worst she could always distract the imperials for at least Noctis to slip through. She sincerely hoped that it would not come to this, but with that they at least got the first secretary to leave them alone to make plans.

Weskham seemed kind of stunned for a few minutes before shaking it off.

“So, you’ve got an idea how to get there without the imperials recognising you?”

Luna tilted her head a little. “Considering nobody has recognised me thus far, I am fairly confident that no one will unless someone specifically addresses me by my name. The only true danger is running into Ravus.”

It was better to have a trump card to be played when neither allies nor enemies were expecting it. Ravus and the mercenaries were hers just as Ardyn was in a way; but as far as Noctis was concerned her brother was still on the opposing side and therefore an enemy that needed to be taken care of. At the very least it meant as long as Ravus and the mercenaries did not fail to conceal the fact they were no longer following orders directly they would be safe and had someone to help them into the heart of the empire. That was definitely a huge trump card, and one that she needed to hold in the back of her hand until its time came.

For now they would have to worry about Leviathan and being granted access to the altar. Without that her voice would never reach the depths Leviathan slumbered in.

* * *

She felt like she was sneaking around without actively sneaking. In the past she had often attempted to flee for a moment of privacy, only to be intercepted by imperial soldiers, MTs, and last but not least her own brother. It was still raining and she was carrying an umbrella with her, but seeing none of the imperials react to her was still a bewildering thing to see. For all she knew the entire group looked like a group of tourists from some other place enjoying the sights of the city even though it rained heavily.

Ignis was under the umbrella with her, mostly at Noctis’ insistence. Nyx, Crowe and Gladiolus had said that they didn’t mind the rain; Noctis said that his hair was a small price to pay, and Prompto had been complaining for a while before settling down. It was kind of awkward, really, but neither adviser nor Oracle found it right to complain about this arrangement.

“Are there many imperials about?” His voice was quiet – the others were walking up ahead, Noctis and Prompto playing the parts of excited tourists and pointing out things. The lone imperial soldier patrolling this place looked at them kind of annoyed, but did not investigate it further.

Luna stared at the bridge up ahead for a second. “There’s quite a few in the crowds, patrolling. Whatever Noctis and Prompto are… trying to do… it seems to be working. We only look like a crowd of tourists trampling through the city...”

Ignis adjusted his sunglasses once again and let out a sigh. “Well, at least it’s working, I suppose. It is… painful to listen to. They’re quite making fools of themselves – Noct especially should know better. Those bridges in central Altissia near the governing district were built at around year 400, not… ‘a hundred or so years ago’.”

Luna held back a giggle. It had never been a secret that Noctis often played dumber than he actually was – he did graduate top of his class after all – but she had never really considered that Ignis had been one of the people to help him study. It made sense, after all advisers were ever supposed to support their lieges, and Ignis seemed almost scarily thorough and intelligent. She hadn’t known him for long, but there was absolutely no denying that he had a certain charm to him with how proper and polite he was and then broke into terrible puns when he was in a less official situation.

“Well, it helps our case and it is rather amusing.”

“His faked stupidity, or my silent suffering?”

She giggled again and considered bumping her shoulder into his playfully before remembering her manners. “Both, actually, though I feel your suffering to a certain degree.”

Out of the corner of her eyes she saw a familiar figure engaged in speaking to three imperial soldiers. Those soldiers were standing in parade rest despite the fact that the person they were speaking to dressed rather atrociously and seemingly was just complaining about the weather at length.

That explained where Ardyn had gone and what he was doing.

* * *

The atmosphere in the room was tense despite the fact they had managed to agree amicably on several points thus far. Noctis’ friends and her Glaives would have to help evacuate the citizenry. Every Accordan citizen knew that the sea were a force to be reckoned with, and following the startling amount of thunderstorms across all of Eos and the earthquakes that struck several central places other than the Disc of Cauthess all over the planet, people were starting to whisper strange things about the altar. Some suspected that Leviathan would rise from the depths – if someone were to evacuate the people, Camelia Claustra said, it would only confirm that which they already feared.

She just needed help with it, especially since the empire proved anything but helpful. Luna had to bite her tongue to not blurt out that someone was stalling them from within, slowing things down on her behalf, but she had to keep her hand closely guarded in a game of cards like this. Noctis agreed to the terms, even when the first secretary said that once it began there was nothing they could do for them; she had previously promised to let them access the altar unhindered so Luna could wake the sleeping goddess.

“One has to wonder… what are the two of you doing?”

Noctis and Luna exchanged an uneasy glance. Just this morning she had said that this was far from begging for covenants and the gods’ support to fulfill the prophecy, to prevent eternal darkness from swallowing up Eos. This was a selfish crusade, a bunch of mortals rearing against the fate they had been burdened with. But nobody but those closest to them knew.

“I would beg Leviathan for her grace and protection in Noctis’ stead. For only the Oracle can wake the slumbering Hexatheon, and only the king can receive their blessings.”

It was harder than expected to tell this lie in particular. For a long while she feared it was obvious that she had lied about this, but the first secretary did not notice that. Luna had broken into cold sweat by the time they parted with an agreement to do it as quickly as they humanely could. Property damage was of no concern as long as the population remained unharmed, and with much luck there was a good chance that with Ravus’ help they might slip out without getting arrested.

* * *

[15:33] Ravus: I see. Well, I will have to fly the troops stationed here into combat as soon as the Hydraean wakes.

[15:33] Ravus: But there is a fair chance I can give confusing commands. Even better if the chancellor remains at your side.

[15:34] Ravus: He often pulls the card that I am technically above him in the chain of command, but even soldiers respect him.

[15:34] Ravus: So long as he remains by your and Noctis’ side the two of you should be able to go unhindered.

[15:34] Ravus: I will let him know.

[15:35] Luna: Much appreciated. I’m afraid it’s been going rather fast lately, but… thank you.

[15:35] Luna: Stay safe tomorrow.

[15:37] Ravus: You, too.

[15:37] Ravus: Ah wait. The mercenaries are here with me. If you require help, I can send Aranea in.

[15:38] Luna: We… should be fine. Make sure that the two of you get out unharmed.

[15:38] Luna: Well, the Glaives are dragging me out for supplies I suppose.

[15:39] Luna: Hopefully we’ll see each other in Gralea.

* * *

[23:51] Ravus: You better arrive with guns blazing and with you and your friends in one piece. Please.

* * *

The next day also started with a thunderstorm, perhaps even worse than yesterday’s. From the moment she awoke it looked darker outside than it was supposed to be, with the occasional bolt of lightning all but lighting up the city for a split second before the light dimmed back to what it was before. It was a foreboding aura that held Altissia in its grip as they left the Leveille together, and all of them remained oddly silent as they made their way to the place that Camelia Claustra had given them yesterday as place where they could meet up with the city guard. Luna and Noctis were to make their way to the altar on their own with minimal protection, the rest of the group was to ensure that the citizens at least went to higher ground.

Whatever powers the Hydraean truly held, staying in the city was not going to be safe for civilians. After the evacuation effort the group would attempt to join the fray again, unless Noctis and Luna managed to take the goddess down before that – in which case the two of them would be mostly on their own while facing down the imperial troops that Ravus would have to send out no matter what in order to avoid raising suspicion. Noctis had joked that a few imperials were a joke after taking on a goddess, but Luna remained awkwardly silent.

They wouldn’t last forever. Using magic tired Noctis, and she felt the ring heavy in her pockets.

It was to be a last resort. She would not hand him the trinket that had haunted his family for so long, had all but eaten their life force in an attempt to power up the crystal for the Chosen – she would not hand him that which had killed his mother when the woman could have easily lived unless absolutely necessary. She truly hoped that it would never come to her having to hand it to him in battle as something that was their last chance at survival.

It would also be her first time truly fighting those she roused from eternal slumber, and the first time Noctis did so without his friends. Any of the others would be a better asset in battle than her she felt like, but there was no avoiding it. And Luna made a silent oath that morning, an oath that she would fight as ferociously as she could; the magic of an Oracle was a force to be reckoned with even if it exhausted her.

Close to the meeting point they stopped. It was a little awkward, and every person seemed to want to wish the other group good luck, but such a speech seemed kind of exceedingly silly. Eventually Gladiolus cleared his throat to turn to Noctis and wish him well out there. Noctis avoided looking at his friends but also wished them well. Surprisingly enough it was Ignis out of all people who broke the awkward silence between the four of them and just grabbed Noctis by the shoulders to pull him into an embrace.

“Seriously, Noct. This will not be like Titan or Ramuh – neither Gladio nor I, or even Prompto will be there in case something happens. I trust you and Lady Luna, truly I do, but… please. Please, just take care.” There was an edge to his voice that seemed unlike the man that Luna had gotten to know over the past few days. “I will make certain we can join you as soon as we are able, but until then watch Lady Luna’s back. I am certain she will do the same.”

Luna and the Glaives merely looked at each other for a few minutes before the two of them put one hand each on her shoulders. After what Ignis said there wasn’t really anything they could have said themselves. Luna tried thinking of something, but much to her surprise it was Crowe who instead gave her a salute after removing her arm.

“For hearth and home!” Nyx followed suit, though he did not say anything.

They’d told her several times that this was the creed that the Glaive focused. That very line had been how Libertus had finally understood the connection between the Glaive’s Titus Drautos and Niflheim’s High Commander Glauca. This was a vow they had taken a long time ago, a vow to protect what mattered. Hearing it now after the Kingsglaive was all but disbanded was… strangely comforting, even if Luna herself had never truly seen the Kingsglaive operate as it did before the very mission during which the traitors turned on those still loyal to king and crown.

She nevertheless tilted her head a little. It seemed an odd vow to recite here, in the middle of a country none of them knew, just as Luna herself was about to unleash the rage of the depths against it for something that many historians frowned upon as Solheim’s worst mistakes – to fight one of the Hexatheon.

There was something she needed to tell the two of them, but their moment was over. The Accordan guard had found them, and asked the people who would help with the evacuation effort to come with them. And before she could tell either of the Glaives that she cared more about them themselves than about any vows they could make, they were gone.

* * *

Only Noctis stood by her side as she raised her voice once more. Before it had been Nyx, Ardyn and Crowe when she had awoken Titan and Ramuh. The first time she had raised her voice in fear, uncertain of what would happen. The second time she had once more raised it in fear, for there was a good chance that the ensuing thunderstorm would upset the seas enough to make her fall off the boat as she sang.

This time, she raised her voice in confidence. Again it was loud and clear, but this time there was no hesitation. Noctis beside her also had his eyes fixed on the sea up ahead. She had warned him that there was absolutely no chance that the Hydraean would rise amicably. They would have had to fight regardless, but there was a good chance that driving the goddess into a full rage might work both in and against their favour. Whatever he would say, he would have to fight.

He hadn’t understood Titan. The words had sounded like a threat so he had attacked. Ramuh had attacked first according to Noctis, asking if this was truly the path the Chosen was to walk.

Somewhere in the background she heard the bells of an Altissian bell tower. It must have just hit one in the afternoon. She continued singing, even as the waters started churning.

Leviathan rose in front of them with a roar, and king and Oracle stood side by side, hand in hand.

There was no way they could lose, not when they had finally reunited after so long. Once their friends came back there was absolutely no way Leviathan could overpower them.

Her last notes faded out as she slowly let the song end.

Noctis let go of her hand and took a step forward. “Leviathan! I am here to challenge you! Not for your power, not for your grace, but to see once and for all who is stronger – that which can eternal lie, or that which has the knowledge of a hundred different lives lived before it!”


	6. melody of eternal parting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “And here I was convinced your luck would run out. Alas. Your cavalry will be arriving in due time, Oracle – your brother already is trying to order a partial retreat from the immediate battlefield.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: i fucked up the chapter title there. whoops. fixed it now.

Leviathan had never been described as benevolent goddess. The depths of the sea were ever unpredictable, wild, uninhibited. From the moment she read about her Luna had known that begging for her favour would never work, for the sea took as much as it gave. The tides were unrelenting, unstoppable even to a degree. The Hydraean was a force that was much more terrifying than the Fulgurian or the Archaean could ever hope to be, something only overshadowed by the Draconian and the Glacian, she was what the Infernian had been to the lands – benevolent but vengeful, unpredictable when displeased.

Noctis raising his voice had caught her attention. She was a dreadful presence, awash in the energies of the tides, surprisingly calm for what looked like it could tear continents apart in power alone.

‘ _You dare speak to me after what you wrought?’_

Luna slammed the trident’s end onto the altar, barely more than a loud tocking noise. Yet it rang disturbingly clear through the sound of the waves. “It is a challenge you cannot ignore. You would have tested his strength regardless of the reason he came before you; here he is. There is naught you have to give should you win, naught you have to spare. Should we lose, then devour us, devour our allies. Let the tide wash away those who foolishly challenge you and return to your slumber as if naught happened.”

‘ _Foolish fleshlings, challenging those they should worship!’_

Noctis summoned his sword in a flash of blue light, a weapon that looked barely real until it finished materialising in his hand. It had started raining again, a familiar feeling of dread settled in, and Luna stared up at the Hydraean with defiance.

Was that how Solheim’s people had felt when they had rebelled against the Infernian’s rule? But unlike Solheim they had not received gifts from the goddess they stood before; Solheim had rebelled against its benefactor. All Luna and Noctis were rebelling against was an unjust fate thrust upon their shoulders, a path that would inevitably lead to their true benefactor. Somewhere at the end of the road, wherever he rested, waited the Draconian.

The Hydraean was but another bump in that road, another obstacle in the path of defiance.

It was long overdue anyway. She remembered the flames that had consumed her home. She remembered her brother sitting next to their mother’s body. Remembered the screaming as MTs cut down officials. Saw that fear in Noctis’ eyes as he called out for her once she had let go of King Regis’ hand. How he had stayed behind the last time, the blood that had spread across the floor. That calm smile and the flare of anger in the queen’s eyes as she handed her that accursed ring that was burning a hole in Luna’s pocket now. Had it truly been Solheim that had started all of this? Had it ever only been the Infernian against the other five? There was no living person, not even the Accursed, who knew what had truly happened at the peak of civilisation, for gods could be as biased as mortals could be.

Leviathan was no exception.

Luna bowed to the goddess, a movement that could be nothing but ironic. A provocation; her hand was still fast around the trident that had belonged to one of the previous kings of Lucis. This was Noctis’ weapon, but for the time being she would borrow it, they had agreed on that.

“I see no goddess worthy of worship. Merely a goddess that has slumbered so long she has forgotten how Eos suffered, mortal generation after generation, up until this point. Tell me, Leviathan; is that just? Is that your divine decree? To let us suffer under a scourge that you could have helped halting for things our distant ancestors did? It is not fair. And thus we stand before you on this day in an attempt to defy the burdens you would have us bear. Such is ever the path of the mortal, no matter how long you slumber, no matter how many Astral Wars you must fight.” She stretched her free hand out, a glimmering light dancing across her palm. “So heed our challenge – the Chosen and the Oracle are here to end this never-ending spiral of unfairness!”

With that, the water rose. Built up into a wall behind Leviathan, the water and the Astral both roaring. The rain intensified only, and the sheer force of magic ripped entire chunks of the city surrounding the altar out of their place and sent them spiralling up with the water. Noctis and Luna nodded to one another.

“I’ll have to stay here, I cannot warp. Should you get injured, get back here – I can heal you. Otherwise I will support you.”

“I’m counting on you Luna.”

“I would not have it any other way. Get going!”

And with that, Noctis warped away from the altar while Luna sent a beam of light into the general direction of Leviathan.

An Oracle’s magic was different from what the kings of Lucis used; Elemancy in general was rather strange all things considered. In the past the people of Solheim had been given the ability to wield magic at their leisure, they had used it to forward their technological advances. A synergy that was only fastened by how blessed the earth was until humanity’s vile betrayal; the Infernian took what he had given them and turned his element against them, until the part where his stance on life changed to something vile, bitter. Humanity never once again wielded magic at their leisure, and technology rapidly vanished as its creators perished one by one, up until none were left. Until the countries that rose after the fall of Solheim decided on a common calendar it had been Niflheim that had advanced the furthest. They had all advanced rapidly after that, rapid enough to keep up with modern warfare tactics employed by Niflheim. Elemancy was the only true trump card that Lucis held over any other country.

The royal family’s ability to draw energy from the ground, to manifest shields out of thin air gave them an edge over most technology. It wasn’t until daemons were employed that Niflheim truly rapidly started winning battle after battle on Lucian soil; it had been then MTs that had turned the tide.

The magic Luna used was given by the gods and only her family’s female descendants could use it. The power to close wounds, to banish the Scourge – bright light, strong enough to tear the darkness asunder. But an Oracle’s life was a fickle thing. Overusing it did indeed lead to fatigue, unconsciousness. Across past records came reports of Oracles healing until they bled black, Oracles holding back entire waves of daemons only to collapse and hack up blood, Oracles _dying_ from overusing their powers. There were no kings or queens of Lucis that had ever collapsed bleeding on the battlefield, for their powers came with a different price. They traded in their longevity for power, Oracles and Lucian royals alike, but it came in different ways. An Oracle could simply not choose to use her powers and live a long, healthy and fulfilled life – the Lucians had no say in the matter.

The crystal gave, the crystal took – it was a gift of the gods, after all. One that had been handed to a replacement ruler, one that was to be used to extinguish the Scourge and its former recipient alike, were Ardyn to be believed.

Luna remained immovable as stone, standing there and blocking debris flung at her with the trident. Her first and foremost attention was always on Noctis, the blue blurs of light that followed him whenever he struck Leviathan.

Somewhere amidst the noise of the raging battle she heard something that did not belong. A dull, whirring sound somewhere behind her – the empire had belatedly realised what had happened, and they moved out to get rid of the Hydraean before she could give the rightful king of Lucis her blessing. Ravus had told her from the very beginning that this was something he would never be able to stop, for Leviathan was the only Astral remaining that people knew the resting place of. Shiva and Ifrit had been slain; Titan’s resting place had been obvious; Ramuh’s was known to the Oracles; Bahamut remained suspiciously absent from any mentions. A few people who discredited the prophecy of the Chosen bringing the light back to the land and banishing the Scourge once and for all mumbled that the Draconian was as dead as the Infernian; fallen after giving the Lucis Caelum line the crystal and the ring.

The Niflheim Empire was on its way to ensure that the goddess died before anything happened. And it was only Luna and Noctis against a handful airships and the Hydraean. This was very much a fight they could lose easily, boundless belief that their path was still the correct one or not.

She didn’t know where Ravus was. For all she knew he and the mercenaries he had hired were amongst these airships – swatting them out of the skies meant endangering her only change to storm Gralea. More debris was hurled through the air, hitting several of these airships. The battle turned sour faster than Luna could finish her thought – she barely managed to dive out of the way when Leviathan’s tail crashed against the altar and sent pieces of it crumbling into the sea, only to have said pieces rise up with the swirling current.

Noctis was still warping against her fins, fruitlessly so. She couldn’t join his fight up there, she was stuck down here sending bolts of light against the goddess.

Her sight was blurring by the time she heard steps behind her.

“And here I was convinced your luck would run out.” Ardyn walked up next to her, his hands behind his back and a frown on his face. “Alas. Your cavalry will be arriving in due time, Oracle – your brother already is trying to order a partial retreat from the immediate battlefield.”

She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly; all those blasts had worn her out more than she liked to admit. If he were to start anything funny there was barely a chance of her being able to dodge. But all the Accursed did was watch the blue warp lines that showed Noctis’ path to and from the raging goddess. A cannon shot rang across the sky, some sort of explosive hit the raging waves. The airships were attacking, but none had attempted to catch her or Noctis yet. Perhaps also Ravus’ doing.

“Focus, Lunafreya. You yet have the power to walk on – you need only remember that which your ancestors forget. It is in your blood. Oh, and,” Suddenly he was smiling as he said that, his hand offering her a dagger of some sort, “pray do me a favour and stab me in the guts. Otherwise it will be rather hard to pretend that I was unable to find, let alone catch you. The person piloting my airship might be one of the mercenaries, but without any injuries to speak of…”

Luna simply stared at him for a minute. The rushing noise, the explosions, it all dimmed a little as she stared at him.

“You already ordered me shot once. Now do the deed yourself, as it would have been your duty were we on opposing sides.”

An Oracle looked after the people. Accursed or not, Ardyn was still a person to a certain degree. She slowly shook her head. He closed his eyes and nodded at her while withdrawing his hand.

“I see. You yet hold strong to your ideals of not harming people. Admirable, but ultimately useless. But very well, so be it. I shall see you again when you leave Altissia – or I will fish your ragged corpse out of the waters.”

And with that, he left the battlefield, left her to catch her breath. Noctis had Leviathan’s full attention, and the airships were withdrawing while shooting at the enraged sea goddess. Her focus was fading as she sent more and more bolts of light up there, hopefully piercing the sea goddess’ scales.

* * *

“Lunafreya! Lunafreya!”

The voice sounded strangely far away, especially with all the background noise. She had collapsed at some point just around the time Noctis had charged in after what looked like a burst of thunder from a flask he had thrown – Luna had put her energy behind a blast that she sent in with him. The world had toppled and gone black. Now someone was shaking her, calling her by her full name for once.

The altar looked worse than it had before, just around the time her legs had given in; instead of mildly worn from the ferocious force of water it was now actively crumbling in parts. Whoever was calling her now must have moved her and the trident, for she was fairly certain that this was not the exact space she had gone down in.

“Lunafreya, please! Stay with me!”

Only Ravus called her Lunafreya without any titles attached. She was ever the lady, the Oracle before she was Lunafreya.

“R…avus…?”

The sound became clearer. It was still the roar of the tides, accompanied by what sounded like gunshots. She slowly opened her eyes, but her sight remained too blurry to properly see. The world was awash in the colourful specks that were chunks of debris being carried by the wall of water that Leviathan had risen, ready to consume all of Altissia should they fail here. Her head hurt horribly and the by now familiar thrum of the earth and the crackle of thunder was accompanied by the roar of water.

Somehow that blurry shape that held her up did not seem to be Ravus. Ravus wore white like most commanders of the Niflheim army did – General Glauca had only worn his armour, but clearly that had not been the norm for them.

“Blink once if you can hear me, please.”

She blinked slowly, and whoever it was who was holding her now let out a relieved sigh. She knew that voice, truly she did.

Then reality snapped back to her, her sight went from blurry to brilliantly clear, and she sat up. That last movement had been a bad idea, but she fought back the wave of nausea that hit her with all her willpower. She needed to assist this fight, not take a dirt nap on a crumbling altar.

Ardyn had said that her power was still lacking, and this was a show of it.

“Whoa there, slow down! Don’t get up right away or you’ll faint again.”

Of course it wasn’t Ravus – that was Nyx. It could have been none else but one of her Glaives, and she was rather relieved to see him unharmed. Even though he was thoroughly soaked he looked none the worse for wear, uninjured and whole. Which meant that the gunshots earlier had been Prompto joining the fight from somewhere; the retainers and the Glaives had finally arrived. This could turn the tide of the battle. This could mean that they would walk out alive, triumphant.

But for that she needed to stand straight, to stand tall and not falter. And she could do that. She had never once doubted that she could do it – she would have walked to her fate with her head held high and proud, would have accepted any outcome as long as it meant that Eos would be safe.

Now she could do the same, if only she continued holding her head high. She had to be strong, stronger than she would have had to be if she had walked the given path; she had the strength. She knew she had the strength.

“I’m okay. But I fear… I fear the ring… I must get it to Noctis after all.”

Ignis had asked her to keep it for the time being, but they would need its power now, as much as Luna hated it herself. This haunted little thing that had tossed away people it did not find worthy – was there a chance this infernal ring would reject Noctis? She truly, desperately hoped that it would not. Perhaps it only rejected those not of royal lineage, and perhaps the only reason why Queen Aulea had been able to use it was because she was the mother of the Chosen. There was no time to speculate, but Luna tried to get up.

It was Nyx who held her back, not her surprisingly shaky balance. He was gently holding her back, both his hands on her shoulders. The Glaive was staring right into her eyes as if there was no sea goddess raging against the mortal pests that beset her just behind him.

“Y’know, if you hadn’t already shown that you were surprisingly resilient and stubborn in the crown city, I’d hold you back. Doing nothing and losing everything, was it?”

She stared back at him; his smile didn’t waver. “We’ve come so far, we… we can’t fail here. If it means ensuring that the ring ends on the right person’s finger, then so be it, as much as I loathe it and all it wrought. Not returning it would be doing nothing. And I would lose him, my brother, my life… would lose you and Crowe.”

The waves were raging against the skies at this point. Debris was being tossed around by the sheer might of the water still, and the air was filled with the howling noise of rushing water and the roaring of the water goddess amidst the tempest. They were both soaked to the bones, yet seawater was still continuously raining down on them. Salt filled her lungs, salt burned in all her wounds. An even beat followed by sparks of electricity haunted her amidst the raging tides, but for a moment it were just her and Nyx staring at each other.

Then he lifted his hands off her shoulders – he was not going to hold her back any longer. Her mind was made up, after all, and he knew what needed to be done. He didn’t have to say it for her to understand what he meant; this was him telling her that she needed to go.

She nodded at him, he nodded back slowly. Another wave crashed against the crumbling altar. They both got up at around the same time, Luna still kind of shaking from magical exhaustion. Unlike Noctis she did not enter stasis if she overdid it, there was no crystal to help her recharge. Nyx offered her an arm to lean on as she found her bearings again.

Luna grabbed his arm. Pulled him in. Once more they stared at each other for a heartbeat.

She kissed him gently, Leviathan and the waves roaring in the background.

* * *

She couldn’t warp. That, Luna soon realised, was a rather debilitating set-back. Still, she needed to gain higher ground to hand this accursed little ring over safely. Nyx meanwhile was to support Noctis and tell him that she was on her way.

The only way for her to gain higher ground… was to wait for debris floating by. Carried by the current she would have to jump from one to another until she reached this immense chunk of Altissia that was floating not too far away. She had walked through that street up ahead with Noctis not too long ago, and now it had been torn from its place. Once Leviathan went down all of this would collapse and sink into the sea with her. Altissia would be forced to rebuild.

The first secretary had said that damage to property was of no concern. It was no secret that Accordo was wealthy. But this destruction was unlike anything Luna had ever seen in her life. It reminded her of the day her childhood went up in flames, except that this time it was a foreign nation that had to deal with the fallout instead of her and her brother, locked away in the manor they had grown up in and with nobody but their servants at specific times.

Why would the first secretary permit to hold a battle on her ground, even if money was of no concern? She was technically an ally of Niflheim through annexation – she should have delivered them right to the High Commander instead of attempting to barter with them for her citizen’s safety. She could have just as easily turned them away entirely without taking a side technically; without the explicit permission to use the altar and the trident they would have been unable to wake Leviathan but they would have been free to leave as long as they did not actively provoke the empire.

That woman’s motivation intrigued her as she jumped onto the chunk of road that had been her goal.

Her entire body ached horribly and she actually had to sit down. The ring felt like it weighed more than the world itself at this point, hot and heavy in her pockets despite her fingers being cold and clammy. The water was wearing her down slowly but steadily, the salt in her lungs seemingly crystallised as she tried to fight off the urge to lie down and sleep. Normally she never bothered much with her magic – she had never had to. Even after fleeing the crown city it had been mostly Nyx and Crowe that had taken care of anything and everything, with Luna just occasionally jumping in to help without using her magic. This was the most tired she had ever been in her life, and it was frankly kind of terrifying how easy it would have been to lie down and let all of this go by.

She still needed to give the ring to Noctis. After that, once she made certain he would not go up in flames, she could maybe lie down somewhere safe and sleep. That was what her body demanded. She was still sitting, unable to get back up on her feet because she was fairly certain that she would just faint if she got back up now.

Hopefully Nyx would manage to get to Noctis soon.

“Ah, Lady Luna!”

People apparently had preferences for warping. Many of the Kingsglaive did not like doing it, many others were capable of doing it but often had to throw up after a warp. Very few were capable of pulling them off repeatedly like Nyx – Crowe on the other hand just hated doing it. Seeing her phase in after her rapier landed in front of her was kind of weird, and she stumbled and fell in front of Luna.

“Dammit, I hate doing that… Are you okay? Are you unhurt?”

Luna nodded slowly, still sitting on the ground. Crowe jumped back to her feet, unusually upbeat for someone who had spent the better part of an hour at least hurling spells at a creature that seemingly did not budge even the slightest. She crouched down next to Luna, worry on her face.

“If you’re feeling unwell you can just gimme the ring and I’ll hand it to His Majesty. There’s no need to torture yourself for that – yeah, Nyx told me what’s going on and how we can win. He’s still trying to catch up.”

Luna exhaled slowly. “No, I… I want to be the one to hand it over… it should be me… I am just so very… tired...”

“You can lean onto me. It might be better to get away from the edge of this thing before long. C’mon, here, take my hand.”

Crowe hauled Luna back to her feet, though Luna stumbled and crashed against her. She was rather dazed, her exhaustion being worse than it had felt when Nyx had shaken her awake. Crowe merely laughed a little and helped her regain her balance.

“If I… If I black out again, can you… can you hand Noctis the ring…?”

“Of course.”

She let out a sigh of relief as she stumbled where Crowe led her. Her head was pounding at this point, her legs felt even weaker than before, and her entire body was begging for rest. She wanted to stay awake just long enough to make certain Noctis and everyone else remained unharmed, but it seemed almost impossible now. Crowe actually helped her sit down at a safer place than the very edge of the platform before crouching down next to her again. Luna slowly turned her head to look at the Glaive who was smiling at her – and Luna finally saw that this woman was also very exhausted.

They both here, but they would not be able to rest properly until the ring reached Noctis’ hands.

Luna slowly raised a hand. She was shaking, it was near impossible to keep her eyes open, and all she tasted at this point was salt. Fishing the ring of the Lucii out of her pocket was harder than she thought, but Crowe made certain that it did not roll out of her hand. She would have wanted nothing more than to be conscious when Noctis arrived, wanted to tell him that this ring had killed his mother in exchange for power. She wouldn’t be able to make it, unfortunately, for her stamina was at its end.

“Give it… to Noctis.”

“I will, Lunafreya.”

The Oracle cracked a tired smile at the Glaive and handed over the ring with said smile.

“Don’t… mention anything… of the crown city… I want to...”

“Yes, I understand. You will be the one who can tell him. It was ever your duty, wasn’t it? Guiding him. Telling him.”

“Yes...”

“I’m just… I’m very glad we made it this far. We’ll make it even farther, princess, mark my words. We’ll get to Gralea and show these Niffs how to properly take over a country. We’ll come out triumphant. We have to. After everything you did, it’s only...”

Luna shook her head slowly. “No… no heroics… even if we storm the capital. Don’t die for me – live… live for me.” She closed her eyes slowly. “If you died, I… I wouldn’t… know what to… I love you. You and him both… I love you...”

* * *

[20:24] Unknown: Impressive, really. (UNREAD)

[20:24] Unknown: Though it was to be expected. (UNREAD)

[20:25] Unknown: Whenever you awake and feel good enough for travel… (UNREAD)

[20:26] Unknown: We will meet again on the continent of your birth, on a train you have taken quite a few times. (UNREAD)

[20:29] Unknown: Then we shall see how deep your conviction truly runs. (UNREAD)

* * *

The room was pleasant. There were curtains moving slightly where the windows were open, apparently a nice sea breeze was blowing outside. The sun was shining even though it seemed strangely dimmed; it was rather overcast outside she realised after a few moments of blinking at one of the windows. The bed was perfectly fluffy, the blankets maybe a tad too heavy. Overall it felt like a room that belonged to a small, expensive pension rather than a hotel…

Or a hospital.

Luna sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes.

“Good afternoon!” Noctis was barely more than a black smudge next to her, but once her sight adjusted she saw that he looked rather relieved. “You’ve been out for so long we kind of got worried that you were re-enacting Sleeping Beauty or something. Good to have you back with us, though, Luna.”

“Where… are we?”

He’d been waving at her, and she noticed the fine band of black around his finger. He was wearing the ring of the Lucii just as his father had now, though it looked a little out of place on his hands. Perhaps the thought of him as true king of Lucis was still kind of odd to her, but considering that the two of them were alive it meant that the Lucii had left him in peace.

“Dunno the district exactly, but we’re far, far away from the altar. Or any main parts. The city’s surprisingly unharmed, all things considered… It was just the district immediately surrounding the altar. Though, this place’s pretty off the road. Aranea Highwind got us here, said that she’s here on behalf of two friends of yours.”

Aranea Highwind meant that her brother had his hands in getting this place for them, and the other clearly had to be Ardyn. Those two were the only friends that Luna could immediately think of that would want to keep her safe, away from the empire’s immediate reach even though she was unconscious.

“The others…?”

“All in one piece, in another room. We kinda took turns waiting by your bedside, you just happened to wake during mine. If you want me to, I can go get the others?”

“No, no, this… this is fine...”

“I’ll let you wake up and then get the others – Crowe and Nyx nearly worried themselves sick.”

“How long...”

“Four days. Granted you’re the only one here in the group who doesn’t use Elemancy and your bolts of light really helped me up there, but I figured you’d be super worn out from it. I’m surprised you didn’t sleep longer.”

He laughed as she sat up in the bed. There was a radio in the room that was on a low volume, but she caught that someone was talking about the waking of the Hydraean and her subsequent fall back to the sea she had risen from. Apparently some lesser islands had gotten destroyed by tidal waves following the fall of the Hydraean in Altissia, but overall things remained unchanged. Except that now people knew that the Oracle was alive, and that catching her alive would get whoever handed her in a handful sum of money from the empire. Perhaps even a noble title within Niflheim.

Noctis was also reported alive and to be killed on sight.

“Can’t believe they want you alive. I’d have thought they’d want the two of us dead and all, but...”

Ravus had to have had his hand in making certain that she was to be caught alive. Noctis had been the secret enemy number one ever since the fall of Insomnia, but now he was the public enemy number one. He joked about finally having outdone Marshal Leonis after all these years, but all Luna could do was stare at the ring on his hand.

She would have to tell him just as she had promised Crowe.

It was just so much harder to try to think of how to approach this than she had ever thought it would be. Noctis still looked so relieved that she was awake, talking about how the battle had turned once Crowe handed him the ring. How Leviathan had gone down on a whimper compared to the uproar she had started when Luna had woken her, how there was but a single curse that escaped the goddess as the ring enabled Noctis to strike with what felt like the powers of the gods.

She listened to him regale the tale of his eventual victory, how the ring seemingly whispered as he used its magic. How parts of it looked fairly similar to the magic Luna used, how it had finally worn him down to fall into stasis just as the fight was done. Noctis himself had half-unconscious when they dragged themselves away from the altar beaten and worn, and how Aranea approached them. How she had asked twice if Luna truly was alive in Nyx’s arms, how they’d been given this place to recover until they left Altissia.

“The… the ring… you said it whispered.”

He looked away, out of a window. The curtain there was blowing in the breeze still, a finely made piece of cloth. He was thinking, and Luna was not going to interrupt him. Then he let out a long sigh, one that prompted her to put a hand on his.

“Yes. Voices I never heard but… I could understand them. Just enough… just enough.”

She had been so certain that she could tell him – tell him when the time was right. But all she saw before her once more was Insomnia at night. Nyx was on the ground beneath her, wheezing; Queen Aulea was crouching next to her. That descending sword. That sudden burst of light as a shield manifested. The crackle and sizzle of magic as the queen set out with a smile. King Regis, smiling at her as he built that magical wall between them. King Regis, vanishing in the distance as Noctis stretched out his hand and called her name, the smell of fire, of blood, fire, fire…

“Luna.”

She hadn’t noticed that her entire body had seized up in terror, that she had been digging her fingernails into Noctis’ hand. He didn’t sound like he was in pain at all, but his eyes were so full of sorrow all of a sudden that she could barely keep it together. She was seconds away from sobbing openly – she wanted to apologise to him for being unable to change the fates of his parents, for leading him so astray because she wanted to live and not live in a world he would have had to die for.

“Luna, it’s okay. Look at me; it’s okay.” He said that with a sad smile on his face. “You had a reason for not giving me the ring. I’m not sure what to make of what I heard when they spoke to me, but they’ve fallen silent since. Recover first. Tell me later, tell me never for all I care. Just… Luna, it’s going to be alright. You can… you can… cry if you...”

She’d grabbed him and pulled him into a tight embrace at that point. There was no apology for not having been able to change the fates of all these people in the crown city that night. There was absolutely no word in any language that could properly express that all this death had been but a prelude, had been setting the stage for him to die as well, long after the covenants had killed her. Not a single sentence she could think of could excuse her lying and getting him into direct danger not once but thrice.

They were both crying quietly.

* * *

For a city that just had parts of it swept away by the sea, Altissia continued being rather lively. Perhaps it was the news that the Oracle and the Lucis Caelum heir were both alive and had been in Altissia that made them happy. The rebuilding effort had begun when Luna had been unconscious, maybe even just mere hours after they had left the altar. She’d woken a few hours ago at this point and was enjoying the afternoon sun once more. The open window let her hear what the people were talking about in the streets, and she heard someone mention that the exhibit of her wedding dress was extended to celebrate the Oracle still being alive.

Thankfully there were no mentions of how she and Noctis had apparently appeared together – any more comparisons to fairy tales and how they would still wind up married happily ever after and she would have burst into tears again.

The door at the other side of the room opened, but she already had a feeling that she knew who it was. There weren’t exactly many people that would want to speak to her; and as she had seen on her phone once she got up to move about like Noctis had suggested, it couldn’t be Ardyn. Still, it was hard to turn around to look at them as they entered. Luna got up slowly and forced herself to turn around, but much to her surprise there weren’t any frowns. They weren’t glaring at her or one another, they seemed rather relaxed and were smiling at her.

“Normally I would have made a joke about the sleeping beauty rising, but after talking to Crowe for that long, well… it’d seem inappropriate.”

Crowe cracked a grin at Nyx. “You’re actually learning! Colour me impressed, hero.”

The Glaives started screwing up their faces at each other for a few moments. Luna bowed to them apologetically once they stopped pulling grimaces at each other. “I… I shouldn’t have… I’m sorry for worrying you.”

Nyx tilted his head a little while Crowe put her hands on her hips with a faked sigh. “Don’t apologise; you just needed the sleep to recharge.”

This was another topic that would be hard to address, though in a different way than talking to Noctis about the fate that would have befallen them and what had happened in the city when it fell was. She’d come to admire the two of them in silence. They were her companions that she relied on, two people that had considered her a partner rather than a charge after a while. They’d shared rooms, triumph and loss together. Nyx and Crowe had taught her about their home in Galahd, she had started telling them about Tenebrae and what it was like to live in a country annexed by the empire as its de-facto princess. They’d fought together, had stared across the countryside together, and Luna had slowly but steadily started considering them closer than even Noctis.

“I… what happened during the battle...”

They exchanged a look. She couldn’t figure out what exactly it meant, but neither Nyx nor Crowe really changed their expressions. Apparently this wasn’t all that easy for the two of them either, and Luna cursed herself for it.

“I… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have.”

“Now, wait a sec.” It was Nyx who had taken a step forward now and seemingly debated with himself what to do next. He eventually settled for vague gestures that she didn’t really understand. “You’ve been out for a while, and honestly? That was probably what we all needed. You needed the rest – Crowe and I needed the time to talk about this.”

Crowe pushed him out of the way as she also took a step forward, but she instead closed the distance between her and Luna. The Glaive put a hand on her shoulder while still wearing that reassuring smile of hers.

“Y’know, in the past Lib threatened Nyx about something regarding his little sister. Neither of the bastards thought it necessary to include me in that conversation, so hearing that right out of the horse’s mouth was rather _enlightening._ But anyway, as he said, we talked this through.” She lifted her hand off Luna’s shoulder and instead went to gently brush some hair out of the Oracle’s face. “You told me it was the two of us. And that’s fine. I mean...”

Nyx snorted from where he was standing and shrugged overly dramatically with a sigh. “How’d Crowe put it yesterday...”

“Nyx! Don’t you dare repeating--”

“ _The princess has two hands,_ was it?”

“Ugh!”

They were grimacing at once another again, and Luna couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at that point. This whole thing wasn’t so bad, she realised. It might have been the most inopportune moment that she could have chosen to let it slip, but as the two of them stopped their fighting to look at her as she laughed, she realised that this was just about how she had hoped to feel around someone she truly loved.

* * *

They left Altissia a few days later with a new destination: a simple port somewhere in the wastelands that were the eastern reaches of the continent that housed both Tenebrae and Niflheim. According to intelligence that the hunters under Cor had gathered while the group had been in Altissia there was another royal arm to be gathered there – counting those that Noctis had this would be the last, the twelfth sans his own and his late father’s sword.

“Apparently the High Commander carries that around.”

Ravus had said that he would return it once the time was right. She couldn’t say that he would return it, and it was rather obvious that at least Prompto and Gladiolus were holding back insults directed at her brother because she was present, but it didn’t bother her that much. A trump card that had to be played carefully, and they continued their cruise back to the main land mostly in silence. She was sitting between Nyx and Crowe, holding Nyx’s hand and with her head on Crowe’s shoulder.

The radio broadcast just before they had lost the signal out here on the sea had talked about the bounty placed on Noctis’ head and the handsome reward to be awarded to the person who caught the Oracle unharmed. Cid had said that it was a lot of bogus nonsense, that nobody other than Niffs not exactly right in their heads would even attempt to kill the last of the Lucis Caelum line. Besides, Noctis had grumbled from where he had sat, he wouldn’t give in that easily. Once they retrieved that royal arm from Cartanica they were free to pass on to Tenebrae.

The only way of transport that would not take ages was a train, for as much as Noctis’ group loved the Regalia and driving it around, there was simply no way to get all seven of them into a car. This morning, when they had packed their things, someone had knocked on the door.

It had been Aranea and she had handed them tickets for the train line that ran between that small port town they were currently en route to and Gralea. There were quite a few of these – one from the port city to Cartanica, one from Cartanica to Tenebrae, and one from Tenebrae to Niflheim for all seven of them. Either Ardyn could read minds or he knew precisely what was worthy of their attention on the continent.

Luna figured that he knew the exact location of the royal arm – it had apparently taken Cor’s scouts on the continent several weeks to pin down the location as vaguely as they had; they suspected it lay within an old and desolate mining system that was beneath the wastelands of Cartanica. Which entrance and which former mine exactly they did not know, and naturally Ardyn had not sent them some sort of note that said which one it was.

But once they reached Tenebrae…

The thought scared her. It had ever been her beloved home despite the smoke-clogged memories of her sitting beside her brother, staring down the path that King Regis had fled with Noctis. It was her home despite the fact it had been barely more than a prison for her up until the day she had left for the crown city with the imperial delegation. What awaited her there was not a castle full of servants, no smiling parents or siblings that welcomed her safe return.

All that awaited her was the High Messenger – unless Gentiana started to avoid her as well as Umbra and Pryna had done ever since Cape Caem. She had tried to call them to no avail.

Gentiana on the other hand… She had promised her before her travels began that she would regale Noctis with her story, to grant him the blessing that she had begged for. Luna had had the creeping suspicion that Gentiana was in fact not a Messenger but an incarnation of the Glacian herself at this point, and the thought scared her to death. If she were Shiva she could easily destroy all of them right where they were, in the middle of Fenestala Manor. She had every right to do so after all that Luna and Noctis had wrought in Lucis and Altissia.

She still harboured the small hope that Gentiana would not smite them before they could even approach her. There was no way of predicting what would happen.

The train was still as Luna remembered it, though this time there were no Niff soldiers to ensure that no person could approach her. It was just her and the others, sitting in a compartment, calling each other by their fake names they had used in Altissia again. Noctis had spent the better part of an hour thus far explaining the region to Ignis in the best words he could manage, kind of hushed and excitedly. At the very least the ring on his hand did not look like the fabled Ring of the Lucii – someone could have mistaken it as a gaudy prize from some sort of arcade.

She had been sitting on her own for a while; Nyx and Crowe had walked off to inspect the train. It would be a while before they arrived in Cartanica anyway. Thus she was rather surprised when Gladiolus sat down opposite her and cleared his throat. They had not really spoken – a Shield of the King was supposed to be a quiet guard before anything else, no matter what. Clarus Amicitia had been that more often than not, and Luna had not spoken to the man at all, but she had heard of his exploits in the field and that he had died in Insomnia just before the king.

His son was a person she barely knew, and Gladiolus himself never actively sought her out.

She tilted her head at him and nodded. “Yes?”

They had to drop any sort of titles and politeness, but she still looked kind of awkward trying to keep their paper thin disguise up.

“It’s about… Cape Caem. Did he ever tell you what happened?” She shook her head slowly, and Gladiolus sighed. “Dammit. I thought he would’ve. But yeah, I told _Nero_ over there, and then _Igor_ asked me to tell you in case _Nick_ hadn’t.”

“I’m all ears, _Geoffrey_. I have been wondering about this.”

Gladiolus sighed deeply before carrying on in a hushed voice. He talked about how the members of the Crownsguard that had gotten Iris out of the city had mentioned that the members of the Kingsglaive they met behaved oddly. The few survivors of the Kingsglaive were all injured and looked rather shell-shocked as they attempted to flee. And then one, according to Gladiolus, had whispered as he slowly bled out that the majority of them had been dispatched on a mission to save the Lady Lunafreya. The rest had been ordered to take care of the city – and then people started turning on them. The Glaive turned against one another, and the Glaive that this member of the Crownsguard had talked to had been injured by one of their own. The Crownsguard had not been entirely certain which members of the Kingsglaive were to be trusted, and in fact some of the Glaive wiped out a good chunk of the Crownsguard and the border guard.

They were working with Niflheim, after all. That was what Gladiolus knew of the situation inside the city, something that Iris had mercifully enough not seen because those that had picked her up from their house had been entirely focused on getting out to provide support to others and to Noctis himself later on. There were no reported survivors of the Kingsglaive that made it out alive but three of them had been conspicuously reported missing.

Nyx Ulric, Libertus Ostium and Titus Drautos; the hero who had vanished when the people needed him, a man who was sought for at least assisting terrorism, and the commander of a band of turncoats that were killing each other in the streets.

Seeing Nyx turn up at Cape Caem alive and well beside a woman who had been reported dead in action had made Gladiolus wildly suspicious of them. Thus he had asked Nyx about it, and the Glaive had regaled him with the tale that Crowe told him first. That Queen Aulea had planned for her to go undercover and fake her own death just in case something went terribly wrong at the signing ceremony, that she was to retrieve the Oracle and see her safely away from Insomnia after it inevitably fell. Gladiolus had let that one slide; he mentioned that while the queen had never struck him as someone who could come up with such a plan, he mentioned that more often than not still waters ran deep. His father had seen him off with exactly that comment, that still waters often ran deeper than he could imagine.

So he started asking about the night, about the fact that the Glaive was at least made half of traitors that would willingly sell out their new home to the people that took their old home. Nyx had started being hesitant about it until he turned scathing. Something about how they had been treated in the crown city, how he would have never turned on anyone but that he partially understood why they had done it. He would never have done something that extreme, and the fact that he was alive he owed entirely to Luna and the queen.

When Gladiolus had asked if he knew where Libertus Ostium or Titus Drautos were, the Glaive turned openly hostile. He had spat out that Drautos was the person who had killed the kind, caused the death of the queen, was the man who had almost effortlessly ended the distinguished Shield of the King Clarus Amicitia. And that was when things had gotten ugly. They had started insulting each other over their allegiances to king and country, about interfering in battles, how Nyx had repeatedly pressed the fact that he had gone to save Lunafreya from the empire’s grasp and that Clarus was already dead when he arrived on the scene with her, that Gladiolus should stop sounding like Nyx was a hero who could save every life.

Eventually Nyx had lunged forward to deck him in the face when Gladiolus had started sounding like the border guard.

“I see.”

“Yeah. I’m not proud of it; I reckon neither is he. But that’s how we ended up brawling like a bunch of idiots.”

She folded her hands and looked out of the window. The wastelands were passing rather quickly, though they were now passing through what looked like a mining town. Cartanica couldn’t be that far away from where they were now, and she saw that Crowe and Prompto returned to the department they were on.

“Thank you for telling me.”

“I just wanted to get it off my chest, _Stella_.”

Luna smiled at him, and he gave her a confused grin. Then Prompto was calling for _Geoffrey_ , and he quickly excused himself. Crowe took his place after letting him pass, a little confused.

“What was that all about?”

“Nothing, _Camilla._ At least nothing to worry about. He was just making conversation and checking on my state.”

* * *

They stayed up while Noctis and his group entered the mines. They had about a day to get to the bottom of it and then would have to return up here so they could check the next mine. Luna however felt a strange power dulling her senses; it even made the thrum of the earth fall near entirely silent. She almost missed it as they waited for the others to return.

Noctis returned triumphant and brimming with a strange energy – it was too strange for her to ignore. Up to now the power of kings had always felt like nothing; barely more than a nagging reminder that something happened in the back of her head. She had always felt her mother’s healing powers; sharp, soothing, cool. That was what healing was like she had explained, a cold touch that could lessen the fever, could wipe away the Scourge. Noctis’ powers now felt like a sharp sting, one that felt strangely familiar.

On their way to Tenebrae she remained silent as she sat next to Nyx while leaning her head against the window. That sharp sting… it wasn’t as intense as it had been back when he had suffered under the Scourge after an attack by a daemon. But it definitely felt familiar, but that time he had spent in Tenebrae was her only comparison. Noctis was perfectly healthy and did not seem to be withholding any kind of information – Luna doubted he would have been as strangely awake as he was now.

Perhaps the fact that he did not seem to be sleepy at all was throwing her off. Under the crystal all kings and heirs suffered to some degree, and Noctis had barely lived through a near mortal assassination attempt. He had ever been sleepy and quiet to a degree; sometimes his letters just had a line drawn through whenever he nodded off in the middle of the day. There wasn’t anything she could have done about that, it was linked directly to how close the Chosen was to the crystal.

But now he wasn’t tired any more. This was another thing she would have to ask Gentiana about if the woman would allow the Oracle to speak to her.

Perhaps.

There was no knowing until they arrived in Tenebrae.

* * *

[12:30] Ravus: You are on your way to Tenebrae?

[12:30] Luna: Yes. Why?

[12:31] Ravus: I don’t know… something is truly off here.

[12:32] Ravus: I shall keep you informed, but… I don’t quite know how to explain it.

[12:32] Ravus: You’ll probably understand once you get here unless it escalates before that.

* * *

The air in Tenebrae was different than she remembered it being. It was always clear and almost perfectly still, but on this day there was an almost harsh breeze blowing. The wind was cold and carried the strange stillness that the elements seemed to fall under whenever it snowed. The people of Tenebrae always said that snow was ever a silent embrace of death, given that it was the element that shiva ruled over. If Shiva was the ruler of death, then snow and ice had to be the heralds. The unforgiving cold that cut through even the thickest set of clothing, the fact that only fire could fend it off for so long before the fire died too and left the people in the cold.

Fire and life were described as fleeting, but a thick cover of snow and ice was almost indestructible just as death was the only certainty that people had in life.

“Brr.” Prompto was bouncing from one leg to another until Noctis shoved him; the two of them laughed at each other for a second before Noctis agreed that it was rather cold here.

Fenestala Manor lay up ahead, and the little bit of sky that Luna saw behind it and the trees on the mountains that she had grown up with was perfect white. It was definitely going to snow later.

The path to Fenestala Manor was strangely devoid of anything or anyone. Normally there would have been quite a few Niff guards stationed around here, and back when she was a child it had been Tenebraen soldiers that had protected the home of the Nox Fleurets. Now there was nothing but an empty path, leaving them to walk unhindered.

Ignis noted that this was indeed odd, but Luna soothed these fears that were arising – it was rather clear that either Ravus or Ardyn had their hands in this.

Ardyn was more likely than her brother, however. Ravus had texted her again just a few hours ago and said that there was movement in Zegnautus Keep. There was something going on and he had to go investigate what it was, lest it hindered her and Noctis’ path later on. He mentioned something about the soldiers and MTs behaving quite differently than they had before, as if something was controlling them. That was anything but good news, but there was no way she could think about that now when Gentiana could be waiting up ahead.

In front of the manor they indeed caught up to Ardyn, much to Noctis’ displeasure.

“Ugh, I had a feeling he’d be here.”

“’Tis a pleasure to see you again as well, Your Majesty.” The ironic bow really made the whole movement look like a ridicule, but nobody said anything. “The doors are open should the Oracle wish to return to her home. I am but afraid that there will be no meeting with any of Niff friends – they have all been called back to Gralea.”

Luna crossed her arms. “And I have you to thank for that?”

Ardyn’s expression darkened for once. He did not look the slightest bit pleased as he turned to look at the door. “No. Emperor Aldercapt himself gave the order, apparently. From one moment to the other they had all evacuated the premise and boarded airships that landed near the train station. That was about four hours ago.”

Only four hours… It aligned with Ravus’ message that there had been movement in Zegnautus, but it did not answer any questions that she could have formulated. Thus she instead walked up to the door and put a hand on it.

“Are any other people within?”

“You should be able to tell if there are.”

She focused. She had always been able to feel Gentiana before she appeared, and it was a familiar feeling. It felt like watching snow fall in the dark, and as she closed her eyes she could almost feel that. Which could only mean that Gentiana was indeed around, and most likely waiting for her. She also felt that strange sting from Noctis’ general direction – and a strange throb from Ardyn’s general direction as usual. As she opened her eyes, she turned to look at the Accursed.

“If we were to meet the High Messenger… would she attack you?”

He rolled his eyes. “Who knows. Certainly not me; it has been too long since I deliberately ran into any of them.”

Fenestala Manor had ever been a sanctuary, a sanctuary that had turned into a prison halfway through her life. She knew every single one of these halls, knew which portion of the floor used to be slippery enough to slide around with socks on. Knew which floors were best for chasing her brother around. At the same time the pristine white of the walls, the glittering and glimmering decorations all but reminded her of those years she had spent with no one but Gentiana and the dogs around – her only companions for the longest time had been not human.

The first time she returned home after leaving to see the world burn she was hit with how cold this place looked despite the good memories she had of it. This wasn’t the same place she had left for Insomnia, it was quiet and desolate. Not even when the Niffs had moved in it had been quiet; there had been yells and orders that had cut through the intense grief that had dulled her senses for about half a year before duty gave her a new sense of self.

This stillness that hit her when she opened the door and walked in with the group of people she was travelling now was unreal. Frightening. She was certain that people could hear her heart beat loudly at this point – she definitely did hear it for once. It seemed wrong to be scared of home, but the silence was choking, foreign. Even under occupation there had been servants who had been friendly, filled the place with cautionary laughter as the Niffs started to occupy the ancestral home of Oracles and seat of the Tenebraen royalty. And before the occupation it had been home, warm and welcoming despite the cool colours, a place where she felt safe, a place where she chased after Ravus and leaned into the bed as someone read her a story, perhaps a passage from the Cosmogony.

Now she was standing in this place as a free but wanted woman, and there was no one around to welcome her back. Ravus was waiting in Gralea, the Niff soldiers she had expected to attack them were gone, and the servants had apparently abandoned post when the heard about her apparent demise in Insomnia. Nothing but the cold quiet, and everyone’s shoes clicked awkwardly on the floor.

Noctis was whispering something to Ignis about how this place had felt differently when he had been here as child – Luna had nearly forgotten that even back then Noctis had talked about his friend and future adviser Ignis. Prompto and Crowe were both looking around the foyer rather impressed. Nyx and Gladiolus merely stood there in silence, and Ardyn was staring at the door as if he had seen something. Whatever was going through their heads she did not know. She didn’t really want to know, either. There was only one place to go and she had a feeling she knew where Gentiana would await them in the silence.

Or rather, awaited her and the Chosen.

“There’s not a single soul in here.”

“Smells like a trap,” Nyx grumbled and Gladiolus grunted an agreement. They were not getting along still but at least there was no open hostility at this point.

“No,” Luna shook her head slowly, “there are no living humans lying in wait for us. This is my childhood home where I learned everything – I would know if something were off. But… Just in case. Nyx, Crowe. Prompto, Gladiolus, Ignis. Would… would the five of you please stand watch around here? Just in case someone saw us enter.”

“And let you go alone with His Majesty and--”

“Yes, that is precisely what I ask of you, Nyx Ulric.”

He muttered something to Gladiolus, who nodded back, then sighed in defeat. Ardyn meanwhile pushed through between them, once again wearing his infuriatingly casual grin. But there was something he was definitely unsettled by as he bowed to her.

“Pray tell, what gives me the honour of accompanying king and Oracle?”

She merely glared at him. Noctis’ group did not know who he was yet, and there was no reason to cause an uncomfortable explanation here. As far as they were concerned he was a servant of hers, and Luna crossed her arms. “Truly, I ought to think you would know your ways around here.”

He shut up after that, the smile still on his lips. There was little complaint from their companions as they went on, and Luna confidently led the way. The halls of her happy childhood and lonely adolescence, the halls that contained Ravus’ barely contained rage. She would definitely have to talk about this with him once more once they reached Gralea, but she had a feeling he had understood her position by now. Everything looked just as it had the day she had left with the Niffs, a proud and unbroken smile on her face as they all but forced her onto the airship that would lead to Lucis, and then on to Insomnia. It was rather unsettling how his place looked just the same; as if the people in here had not lived since the day Insomnia fell. White and pristine, intact and untouched – it was a stark contrast to the chaos that had befallen the Citadel in Insomnia, which had been black and battered, broken and reeking of the blood of the entire ruling council and their guards, of those that had sworn an oath to protect the country, the king and the crystal.

It felt a little like a snow globe. Static, unchanging. It had indeed started snowing outside, white specks against the green. Her shoes clicked on the floor as she ascended the stairs that led to the only room that Gentiana could be, and the air was rapidly changing from stagnant and desolate to feeling like a night in winter. Calm, cold, and the snow falling outside all but cemented this feeling.

Noctis and Ardyn had followed her slowly, and she looked at them over her shoulder as they stood in front of her room. The younger of the two clearly still remembered this room, and there was no reason for the Accursed to not know which room this was and what awaited beyond. They nodded at each other and Luna opened the door slowly.

The air inside was bitterly cold, but it was not howling like a raging storm. The window was open and a gust came into the room as she opened the door – it carried snow inside, which wildly danced through the room; moving white against still white. In the middle of the room with her back to them stood the High Messenger.

They entered the room slowly with Noctis closing the door and Luna walking up to Gentiana. She stopped a short distance away; close enough to see her properly but still far enough away to be respectful and out of her immediate reach. If the High Messenger was against them then they would have to flee this place, and this was about as far as she could go.

“I… greet you, High Messenger Gentiana.”

The woman turned around, her eyes closed as always and a soft smile on her lips. That much had not changed; neither had Gentiana’s blinding beauty. Ethereal, eternal, just like the ice and snow left on the highest peaks and glaciers. It was something that no mortal could ever change, would ever change.

“So you return, and not alone. Your path was uncertain when you departed – yet I could feel the confidence with which you strode into this very room you once left wishing for the future to be a different one.”

Luna had expected something else. “You,” her voice as shaking as she barely managed to say it, “aren’t mad?”

Gentiana folded her hands, her smile just as gentle as it had ever been. Her eyes were still closed, but the slight movement seemed to make the snow fall harder outside. “The living ever barter for life, for the only certainty they have death. To defy such is what humanity strove for in the past, it is what humanity once more strives for. Though the path you tread is not expected but not unheard of. So two healers have gone astray in their desire to change the world. That, too, must be fate.” Gentiana opened her eyes, and all of a sudden the atmosphere changed. She had ever had strange eyes, but this time they seemed hollow, cold, like a snowstorm in the making; it froze Luna to her very core. “Still, I would like to hear your reasons. What you did is what drove the Pyreburner to lose his heart, is what unleashed the Scourge upon this earth, blighted the hearts of many and at its peak corrupted the righteous men and women who set out to undo the damage. Surely you are aware of that given your company. I would ask of you, Oracle Lunafreya… was it truly merely the desire for life? Have I misjudged you and the King of the Stone both?”

Those eyes were piercing. Though her expression was a perfectly blank slate, like freshly fallen snow, Luna had to take a few steps backwards. She nearly stumbled to Noctis’ side who had taken a few steps forward to support her. His hands were just about as cold as hers, so it was barely any help, but at least she could stand straight and look Gentiana in the eyes once more.

“It was the desire for life. It was the unfairness that both he and I should be sacrificed for the mistakes of people who lived hundreds of lifetimes ago. It was the unfairness that surrounded any and all of this – I could not stand it. I wanted to do my duty, was prepared to die for it. But the more time passed, the more my companions tried to think of ways to avert this, the more I wanted to live. I did not want to lead your hailed Chosen to the slaughter like an obedient lamb. I do want Eos to be saved, for salvation is what we were promised all this time ago – but I do not want to be heralded an innocent victim that went before the heroic sacrifice.”

Noctis’ entire expression had derailed. He was now staring at her in horror, his cold hand long off her shoulder. “I… what?”

Luna however was still looking at Gentiana, tears welling up in her eyes. “I did not want to die. Neither did I want Noctis to die. Not after talking to his parents, not after all these letters – you saw them. You saw and _knew_ that he did not know his part in the prophecy. And every second that my companions wanted me to live, I wanted Noctis to live. So when I heard what happened in the past; what had truly happened in the past… I could not sit by idly. I had to rise up against them, I _had to_. Dying pointlessly sounded worse than living as heretic, as blasphemer who went against all she had ever been taught. You had your Chosen in the past – and he was willing to die for you. Then why? Why did you have to force it upon another?”

Her best friend was staring at her as if she had strangled his family and his friends to death with her bare hands. King Regis had never told him what being the Chosen would end with; it was something that the man had suffered under greatly in the few conversations she had overheard when they had been in Tenebrae. Her mother was his friend but there was no defying the gods’ will she had said, and as terrible as it was it would at least end with Eos saved. The children were to be sacrificed and if they had been unlucky enough to live then the parents would have had to watch it happen.

Gentiana closed her eyes again just as Noctis took a step backwards, away from Luna. She turned her head away a little as she sighed.

“You follow the path one other in this room once went, though not with the blessing of the Six...”

“If I may,” Ardyn had started moving again, and Luna had not noticed until he put a hand on her shoulder. It was warm, almost scarily so. “Blessings or none, you must admit that what they did was but the logical conclusion. Solheim is but a distant memory for them, and she is right in one thing – it was so long ago in mortal time that it does not matter. The children of today do not bear the sins of the parents of old. Such is what the Pyreburner himself said to me not too long ago; he had his time to think about it.”

The excursion he had taken Noctis on. Noctis had mentioned that apparently Ardyn had wanted to take him to the Infernian’s final resting place but they had found nothing and returned to their respective groups and eventually they had all ended up at Cape Caem. Gentiana turned her head into Ardyn’s direction, her brows furrowed.

“Long has it been that your voice sounded this clear, son of Lucis.”

He grimaced at her. “Perhaps it has always been and you and yours but refused to listen, Glacian.”

Luna would have assumed the revelation to hit her harder. Gentiana had always been a trusted friend, someone she opened herself up to. She had had her suspicions of late, but as Gentiana sighed and shook her head only for her body to dissolve and distort, shifting into what looked a much smaller, less corporeal apparition of the Glacian herself, she did not feel a single thing. Noctis on the other hand took another step backwards.

“But… but she’s...”

“Her body lies dead in Ghorovas,” Ardyn said, “and her eternal winter will keep Niflheim in its grasp forever. Just as Solheim would have eventually drowned in fire entirely. It just so happens that this is her payback, and while less intense than literal skies of fire, it is her own brand of justice. Death is quiet, death is cold. Perhaps it will be uninhabitable hundreds of years down the line, but for now Niflheim withstands the snowfall. But as it has ever been, the gods are undying as the march of time. You are but waiting to recover properly, then regenerate your physical body as your ancient corpse crumbles.”

The Glacian looked so much like the paintings in the Cosmogony that it nearly hurt to look at her. That was the very deity that she had ever looked up to, for the Glacian might have represented death but she was ever just. It wasn’t until recently that Luna had started doubting that very statement, and now the goddess was looking at them with her frosty eyes. It was almost unbearably cold by now, and the snowfall outside was turning into a storm. Wind howled into her room through the open window. Both her and Noctis were starting to shiver.

Ardyn and the Glacian were looking at each other, unmoving.

“Her choices were amusing at first, I must admit. But after a while of thinking it over, I realised something. Her path was set the day she left these quarters, yet somehow, somewhere, it diverged from the predicted path. Her steps were different, and it shaped the future to be something else – something I would see to its end.”

And all of a sudden the wind stopped. The snow continued falling outside but it was no longer howling in through the window. Luna and Noctis, though the latter was still visibly in shock, started huddling together against the still bitter cold, with Noctis even going as far as attempting to hold a flame in his hands to warm the two of them a little. Ardyn meanwhile seemed unbothered by it altogether, a reminder that he was not a living being by any means.

“…” After what seemed like an eternity the Glacian let out a sigh. “It would seem I indeed judged wrong – not only Oracle and Chosen, but also you.”

Ardyn cracked a grin. “Oh no, you had me right, trust me. I would have _gleefully_ watched the two of them break under the responsibilities that you and yours put upon them. I would have unerringly stood at the end of the path, weapons at the ready, to lash out and ridicule them in their pain, had they done what ancient prophecies demanded of them. Alas, the Oracle not stands before you to once more beg for a covenant – your body yet remains slain and lying at Ghorovas, a ghastly reminder that machinery can undo magical divinity if it but succeeds at outlasting them or overpowering them. Therefore I remain the silent judge, neither actively helping nor actively hindering them. There are no wounds to pour salt into, there is no Oracle cracking under the weight of the covenants, there is no Chosen going mad with grief to bait on and on until he arrives where he needs to be. All the preparations, and this _ridiculous_ girl has the gall to do as she does. And you wouldn’t guess it, but I agree to a degree. The children are not responsible for the sins of their parents. The parents are not responsible for the sins of their children. That is something the divine, the undying cannot know unless it has been mortal once.”

Death was cold, death was merciful. When Shiva turned back to look at Luna, she caught that familiar spark in her eyes that Gentiana seemed to have. Something ominous but loving, something that seemed to know the secrets of the earth but could not speak about them. The Glacian was breathtakingly beautiful but so cold, so very cold that Luna felt like her heart was going to frost over right there.

“He has not told you his story, has he? But to answer your earlier question… what worked once would work again. Those that reach their breaking point can build up the courage to walk ever on. That was our judgement of Noctis Lucis Caelum, 114th of the line of Lucis. And our judgement of you, Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, was that of a woman willing to do her duty just as her mother before her, and all the other Oracles. Thus instead of one sacrifice to end it… there were to be three. Oracle, Chosen and Accursed were to be the ones to rekindle the pyre that once burned in all our hearts before the day Solheim fell; small sacrifices in the grand design.”

For but a split moment Luna could feel the rush of water, the shock of lightning and the thrum of the earth more intensely than she had before. Both her and Noctis cringed at the same time; even Ardyn screwed up his face a little for a moment. Alongside that she now felt the biting cold, howling through her heart. It was over in an instant but the strange feeling remained.

“You once asked me to let the Chosen receive my blessing in the very likely event that you would be dead by the time he arrived here. Thus I ask you again, Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, Oracle to stand beside the King of the Stone: would you have him receive of my blessing that he might carry on to banish the darkness at the cost of his life?”

The cold was unbearable but familiar. Most people on Eos had at least seen death, knew that at the end of the path they walked ever waited the Glacian with a soft smile on her lips. She had felt it before when she had sat next to her trembling brother as the gardens around them burned and strange men barked orders at each other to catch the king and the prince, alive or dead. The silence that took the warmth out of a body, the silence that had enveloped the hall as Luna and Nyx had all but pulled each other along while fighting the urge to run back and pound their fists against the magical wall. The moment of silence as the Wall around Insomnia shattered after a hundred years of solitude and peace, the silence that her voice cut through to awaken the sleeping gods.

This was a similar silence now, cold, familiar. Still, Luna smiled as she lifted her head to look at the Glacian who had once been her beloved tutor, who had always been beside her even after her family no longer was, and who would still be waiting at her path’s end, for that was the only certainty that mortal life had.

“I would not.”

* * *

The flowers were untouched. She would have expected someone to burn down the garden in its entirety the moment she was pronounced dead. Perhaps Ravus if he had not been in a high position in the military. Or perhaps other servants, or even just the people of Tenebrae in an attempt to rise against the empire wordlessly. But all sylleblossoms were intact. The pristine blue was frosted now, specks of blue and white against the green of the plain. After the forest had become a place she would ever see in flames she had started planting the flowers here – twelve years ago she had cried in front of the singular flower she had put in the soil here, for here in Tenebrae these flowers were associated with seeing a loved one off to Shiva with a smile. She had planted them as a final farewell to her mother, then another for her own freedom a month later, and over the years the number of flowers increased on its own.

Her mother’s garden of sylleblossoms had been nearby, but they had destroyed that. She didn’t remember whether it had been the Niffs or Tenebraen servants, but the fact that the garden she and Noctis had spent a good amount of time in together was gone remained.

After the initial shock he had taken the news surprisingly well. Just about as well as she would have expected someone who had no idea that he would have had to die for the planet could take it. He’d excused himself after that and said that he wanted to check on the others, and Luna had slunk away and to the garden.

Finding it in one piece was not something she would have expected, and seeing it stunned her into stopping completely dead. It was still bitterly cold and there were still snowflakes dancing through the air, but with the Glacian’s departure the snowfall had lessened in the last hour.

She was not alone for long, thankfully. She heard the familiar crunching noise of boots on a thin layer of snow, and turned around to look at Crowe.

“His Majesty said I’d probably find you here, so I came to find you since Nyx ‘n Amicitia are checking rooms to make sure there’s really nobody but us around. We kinda wanna stay here for a night and then move on to Gralea tomorrow. Is that okay with you?”

Luna nodded, and Crowe walked up to stand next to her.

“Actually… I think this is the place I was supposed to come to. Like, come in through the flower garden and whisk you away to Lucis before the empire came dragging you by your chains. I never did because of what the queen told me to do, but...”

Luna leaned against her. “That would’ve been wonderful. Just having someone come in and take me away before anything bad happens… Just for once...”

The flowers always made her melancholic at best and moved her to tears at best. A farewell wish, a hundred times repeated. Crowe and her remained still and close together for a few minutes in silence before they heard another person come closer.

It wasn’t Nyx, surprisingly enough.

No, it was the imperial chancellor.

He had vanished just as the Glacian had earlier, and his surprisingly good mood had apparently turned sour by now, judging from his expression. But Luna had a faint idea why he was here, and she waited as he stared at the flowers around them.

“Tenebrae ever stayed the same throughout the ages. It is almost repugnant how slowly it advanced compared to the other countries. But that was to be expected of those that follow the Six without questioning it.”

“Gentiana said that you… hadn’t told us your story.” She grabbed Crowe’s hand as she looked at the imperial chancellor. “You’ve given me a rough summary before… what is it that you have not said?”

“… You’re not demanding I tell you, even though I technically are under your command?”

Luna shook her head. “After the Archaean my new route was all but set. Yet you remained – though not actively hindering me in my path you also were not exactly a great help. I could have made it into the imperial base with just Nyx and Crowe.”

“I suppose you could have. I do admit, part of my was curious about something, and I have not yet gained the insight into that.” He had fished his phone out of his pockets and was staring at something on it with furrowed eyebrows. “And many other things are stacking up. So perhaps let me ask you one thing – do you trust all of them?”

“Wh… what would prompt such a question? Of course I do.”

He nodded and put his phone away, his brows still furrowed.

“Trust is so easy to betray should one get promised aught of interest.”

Crowe squeezed Luna’s hand softly before shrugging at Ardyn nonchalantly. “Well, that’s plenty ominous, even coming from you. What gives?”

“Watch your backs. You have not won, and out of the Six Bahamut remains yet the craftiest. When his Chosen came across the Source and learned how to let mercy rule instead of doing as he demanded, the Healer was burdened with a death and the Scourge; and one of the Healer’s followers was tempted to betray a lifelong trust for vainglory and divine gifts. The High Commander’s messages all but make me wonder…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay here's three things:  
> 1) if anyone can guess where the chapter and fic title come from without googling it they deserve to drag me in public for that weird kind of niche interest of mine  
> 2) i kind of sunk into a major depressive episode so chapter 7 isn't done yet. i'll get on it though, i know i can, but i might not update next week right away.
> 
> 3) episode ignis' second ending in german literally just validated the entire thing this fic is based on and i am kind of Reeling here. like, jesus h. christ.


	7. eternal stillness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Light begets darkness, hope begets despair. You of all people should know that, was your journey to be one of hope that started out in despair. A foil to all exists – even the gods are foils to each other. Ramuh and Titan; Ifrit and Shiva; Leviathan and Bahamut. That is how the world is balanced, and thus did the healer contract sickness, thus did the friend betray him. For trust begets betrayal. Health begets sickness.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i fixed the 6th chapter's title. good job, i never noticed that until literally earlier today. my bad.
> 
> merry christmas to everyone! yes i know its late. i mean, the 26th is second christmas day in germany so technically it still counts. so yeah. merry crimmus.  
> i really hope i can whip up the 8th chapter before the year ends, that would be a nice closing. i kinda want to focus on hesperus or start plotting my next project by the time my birthday rolls around in january and i need a while to unwind from long fics.
> 
> sorry for the delay, i think finishing nano with 80k words instead of 60k words burnt me out rather badly :'D

[04:44] RO Besithia: perhap sits time t o giv e this up

[04:44] RO Besithia: aaardyn

[04:45] RO Besithia: an

[04:45] RO Besitha: answer me

[05:56] RO Besithia: g I v eU p

[05:56] RC Izunia: Who do you think you are? You are not Besithia.

[06:57] RO Besithia: THIS WAS NEVER SUPPOS        ED TO HA               PPEN

[06:57] RO Besithia: Y OU

[06:57] RO Besithia: LIED

[06:57] RO Besithia: TO

[06:57] RO Besithia: U                    S

* * *

The country was eerily silent for what was supposed to be the mightiest force all across Eos. The gentle snowfall as they got off the train in the capital city seemed to cover up the fact that this nation had toppled a goddess with sheer force and had won a war of attrition with one of the most malicious yet most witting plot known to mankind. There were scholars who hopped off the train with them, doctors, children and their parents – soldiers. The city lay lower than the train station; hundreds of stairs led further down but also even further up. More people than just them marvelled at the sight of the glittering lights of Gralea below them and the ominous shine of the main military complex above them.

Zegnautus Keep by itself seemed to be even further up ahead than the storage facilities – Luna had never seen architecture like this before.

Lucis had been built upon the ground, the buildings in Insomnia tall and daring, sparkling in the sunlight during the day and under the Wall at night; almost a mockery to those that had tried for hundreds of years to topple this seat of the Lucian crown. Tenebraen buildings were in harmony with nature, not taking more space than it needed, hugging trees and mountainsides, scaling cliffs and often looking like they truly belonged in these ancient forests that made up the majority of the country. Altissia had been daring, defying, built to make the world see that even the Hydraean’s resting place which had been known for its turbulent waters could be tamed; and tame it they did.

Gralea was the centre of Niflheim’s population and culture, a city that had grown in near solitude until it had come forwards and started conquering its neighbouring regions. Its architecture was quite a lot to take in, what with the city looking like it crawled beneath the military. Luna looked up a little – she noticed that there were several parts of it that looked like they were landing spaces for the airships that Niflheim had excavated and fine-tuned after years of studying them.

On their way here Ardyn had mentioned that Niff airships were far from what his father had managed to build, though most likely nothing of that remained these days. He had only marginally helped with the development and tuning of the airships, even though sometimes the botched attempts made him want to yell at the imbeciles bumbling about with such precious technology. It became more and more likely that he had his hands directly in the sudden and rapid expansion of the Magitek division in the last years. Even though Verstael Besithia was praised as genius and ruthless in his approach there were some things that did not add up. Even a genius could not develop an entire army capable of taking down a goddess in so short a time, but if he had the help of someone who knew tricks from an art long lost to Eos…

She shook her head slightly and returned to looking up at Zegnautus Keep. Somewhere up there waited her brother, waited Emperor Aldercapt, waited the crystal.

Nobody knew where the Draconian rested, therefore retaking the crystal was the next logical step. It had been his gift to the line of Lucis alongside the Ring of the Lucii; if Noctis were to reclaim it after taking down three of the Hexatheon and being denied the blessings from the two who had already had their physical forms slain by others… Perhaps that would coax the Draconian into revealing his resting place, if he did not awaken from it right away.

The longer she looked up to this place, the stranger it became. It gave off an eerie energy, worse than the silence that enveloped the entire place. There was a suspicious lack of soldiers even as they got going and went towards the stairs that clearly looked like someone or something was supposed to be standing watch there. Ardyn himself paused for a split second as they approached that, and it set off her alarm bells worse than the sudden radio silence from Ravus once they left Tenebrae.

The chancellor had mentioned that his texts had become kind of erratic, often with long times between them. Her brother had mentioned something being unsettling to her when they arrived in Tenebrae and had apparently forwarded something about patrol shifts for the next month to Ardyn and then also fallen silent. Ardyn had received one text string from Verstael Besithia, the supposed Royal Overseer of the Magitek Project which Ardyn had shown her reluctantly while they were on the train. In the dead of night, with Ardyn obviously rather confused about the strings of gibberish he had received.

“He would normally be absolutely professional even as he suggested some light-hearted murder. Something in the empire stinks, and it is not my doing.”

His plan had been to sacrifice all of them at once, wash most of the military out and turn them into daemons by the time Noctis would have been on his way to reclaim the crystal on his own. The only people to receive the fabled King of the Stone as the High Messenger called him would have been MTs that had broken and gone haywire, rogue even, and daemons that barely managed to keep their humanity and gave way to insanity and an insatiable thirst for blood that drove them.

“I never said I planned on being one of the good guys,” he had said almost completely deadpan, “and if I were to be brutally honest, I would have done so with zero regret. Nil. No hard feelings; no feelings at all.”

There was still snow falling as it did most of the time in Niflheim these days, and Luna felt the energies of the Astrals that had denied Noctis their blessings almost as fiercely as she felt the cold by now. The cold was one of these elements anyway, and every snowflake that hit her burned for a split second. It was a harsh reminder that despite everything this was not the path she was supposed to walk, and while Gentiana had left with her ever mysterious smile and a farewell that also wished her good luck, she remained one of the Six whose prophecy was being worked against.

“Whatever it is...” Ignis’ voice was surprisingly collected for someone who had spent the better part of the last few hours fussing over the smallest details, “… it will prove more trouble for us down the line. Does the crystal truly lie within Zegnautus Keep?”

Noctis closed his eyes for a moment while taking a deep breath. He was connected to the crystal in ways the others weren’t and when he opened his eyes he exhaled slowly. “Yes. I can feel it, faintly. It flickers, but it is there… somewhere farther up.”

Luna grabbed her phone as she followed the group once more.

* * *

[19:11] Luna: Ravus.

[19:11] Luna: Ravus, please answer me.

[19:12] Luna: Brother, I beg of you; we have arrived and something here is…

[19:12] Luna: Just give me a sign.

[19:42] Ravus: l         una             f         r

[19:42] Ravus:                             w        a      tc

* * *

“That… at least he answered…?”

Terror had gripped Luna half an hour later as they stood somewhere amongst the storage facilities she had spied from further down and she had grabbed Nyx’s sleeve.

“He wouldn’t do something like that unless he were interrupted. Something is definitely wrong here, and I don’t know what!”

There was not a single soul in this place. There were daemons in the cages all around, but there was no trace of any human life. There weren’t any clothes left around like they would have been had the men and women employed by the military turned into daemons. It was abandoned, completely and utterly abandoned, and that was perhaps the scariest thing of them all. Further up ahead the lights were flickering softly as goblins banged against their cages; one of these strange devices held a MT with twisted limbs, flashing red eyes and sparking violently. It sounded like it was groaning there and they all unanimously decided to carry on as quickly as they could.

“Wait, Ardyn,” Noctis’ voice betrayed that he was just about as freaked out by this as Luna herself was, “the empire kept daemons in _cages?_ Out here like this?”

“Not out here like this. There were proper storage holds across facilities in the countryside where they were necessary, and a rather large warehouse was remodelled to be the central storage of specimens. I thought the mercenary forwarded that to your friends.”

Prompto gasped softly as Ignis clutched his walking cane hard enough that even in the strangely dim light Luna could see that his knuckles were white. His voice remained calm and collected even under stress. “Aranea did mention something of the sort while we were searching for mythril, yes. I hadn’t… considered that.”

The chancellor narrowed his eyes as they looked ahead.

“Normally there should be patrols right here according to the schedule that I received, but…”

Not a single soul, not a single human; only the electric discharges of broken MTs and the chatter, howling and yowling of imprisoned daemons and the flickering lights accompanied them as they continued their slow march. Even the cameras seemed to have been switched off and a handful looked like they had been violently trashed by something or someone.

* * *

There had been exactly one time that a soldier who had been assigned to watching her as she went on her duty talked to her. It was around her 20th birthday and she had business around the Ulwaat region. Surprisingly enough, she’d only been given one soldier to go with her instead of the usual entourage – said soldier had started chatting with her. Said that he’d enrolled in the army because he needed the money to pay for his sick mother-in-law and daughter, and that it was something he would gladly suffer for. There weren’t exactly many alternatives to make money that good in the empire, it all came back to the military all by itself.

He talked about Zegnautus and the surrounding complexes a little, described them as epicentres of change and once the war was won something that could ensure lasting peace. Luna had politely held her tongue; of course most Niffs believed whatever their government fed them unless they had relatives somewhere out in Eos. Considering how withdrawn the empire was and how long the fires of war had consumed Eos it was very unlikely, though.

This was a far cry from the supposed centre of human technology. They had been completely unimpeded by anything, daemon or human. More cages had been moved and apparently scattered across the pathway, blocking several of the easier approaches, but none of these daemons were able to escape their prisons to attack them. No guards, no scientists, no mercenaries, not even an MT other than the occasional one also locked into a cage and violently sparking.

The snow that fell outside seemed to even muffle their own footsteps and the sound of the elevator. As Prompto nervously hopped from one foot to the other as they ascended to Zegnautus Keep, she noticed that the by now all too familiar energies around her suddenly dissolved.

The earth fell silent after so long; the storm ceased howling; the depths stopped raging. Death held its breath.

For a few moments there was but the glorious feeling of nothing accompanying her, not the whispers of the gods, not the Chosen, not the Accursed.

And then it crashed in. Sudden. Painful.

Luna stumbled against the walls of the elevator they were on with a small yelp. Her head was throbbing, it felt like something was trashing against her very being. She had squeezed her eyes shut but through the sudden thumping noise in her head she heard that Nyx called her name – and Ignis called Noctis’.

This sensation was overwhelming in a way that she had never felt before; even Ardyn’s appearance in Lestallum had been less intense comparatively. She was used to the powers of daemons to a degree, though the malevolence of Ardyn’s had shell-shocked her system and clouded her mind until Crowe pulled the trigger. This feeling now was nothing like that. It felt like something was piercing her skull with hot needles, not unlike what it felt like when she overdid it with the healing magic. She did not grow tired from it, however, it made her restless and dulled her senses almost completely. Luna was fairly certain her eyes were open but all she saw were vague dark shapes that moved in the fuzzy surroundings.

The only thing crystal clear in her vision was the Ring of the Lucii. That accursed thing she had all but forgotten about in the last few hours. That thing that had caused so much grief, so much pain. It was on Noctis’ hand still, he had not once removed it since he had received it apparently. She had not been conscious for how he got it, but for a split second she swore she could see something odd glimmering in the elevator with her, something that quietly judged her and the Chosen.

Then, just as the elevator stopped and the door opened with a hissing noise, her vision snapped back to normal. Her head started pounding and she stood up straight as if something had punched her into an upright position.

“Luna!” That was Nyx, who had apparently gone from trying to get her attention by talking to her to holding her by the shoulders. She could see that Noctis too had apparently sunken against the walls and Ignis had tried to keep him standing.

“Ngh… what was… that?”

“Uh… guys?” She realised that she had not been looking at the door like Prompto had, and the blonde was staring right out at something. “This… uhm...”

A handful white-robed scientists stood there, completely straight and expressionless. Their eyes were also vacant – it looked like someone had strung up dolls in the hallway they were about to enter.

Luna had cured the Scourge hundreds of times. People were ever grateful, ever humble around her. They came from every corner of the world to meet her, and even though any Lucians who did so were detained as prisoners of war the empire ever allowed her to do her duty. But there had always been times when she had been late. There had been times where she could do naught but weep for the unfortunate soul who had to be put down, weep for those who turned into daemons before her. It was not commonly known that people afflicted by the Scourge eventually turned into daemons – perhaps it had been in the past, but that knowledge had long since vanished from the general public just as the art of building an airship from scratch had been.

Those who turned often reacted similarly to how their case of the Scourge felt. Those who had the cases that seemed to throb like a sick heart often writhed in agony. Those with the calm, unassuming cases screeched in terror. There were very few people who turned silently; it were ever those that knew what awaited them. Some of those with clarity asked to be put down as they turned, a last mercy to prevent them from a future as undying creature of the night. That was why Luna was ever accompanied by Niff soldiers – as she had now learned, she was needed for something down the line. She had been needed to wake the slumbering gods, and therefore no harm could befall her before the time to do so had come. Those Niff soldiers were switched out every so often, and Luna never saw them again. She had no attachment to these people serving the people who had taken her home and murdered her mother.

But this was… terrifying.

Not even those who knew, in their last moments of clarity, ever looked so positively vacant. These men in their lab coats did not move or flinch or even _blink_ as they got off the elevator and confusedly regrouped. Gladiolus had to stop Prompto from pulling a gun on these men, and Ignis asked Noctis what precisely was going on. Luna hung around behind Nyx and Crowe, staring at these people who looked like empty vessels. Unmoving.

It was Ardyn who pushed forwards first, almost carelessly strutting up ahead. A few of these ten or so men who stood there frozen in place moved their heads ever so slightly and let their empty eyes follow the imperial chancellor as he pushed past them.

“It would seem the path is… clear.”

When he said that all those who had looked at him as he passed snapped their heads back forwards.

It was with a jolt of fear that Luna realised why Ravus’ texts earlier had been so strange – he was most likely frozen in place like this. She slowly started walking since there was nothing she could do but ever push onwards. She felt a few pairs of eyes on her as she walked ahead with Nyx and Crowe right behind her. Nyx had his hand on one of his daggers, ready to unsheathe it and spring to action as soon as anything happened.

If anything happened at all.

Prompto nearly sprinted past the men, wheezing as he stood beside Crowe who pat him on the back. Gladiolus went on ahead silently and gestured at Noctis and Ignis to follow.

And then they shifted.

As Noctis passed them they turned, all eyes focused on him. They turned around and were staring them down again now that Noctis stood with the group and she saw that the colour drained from his face a little. He bent over and let out a cough.

“I see.” She looked at Ardyn whose eyes were darting from the still men to Noctis and back to the still men. “The ring. That is what they’re looking at.”

“But then why did they look at the Oracle and you as well but not any of us?” Gladiolus had his eyes narrowed.

“I cannot quite say.”

“Cut the crap, man!” The Shield of the King looked furious as Ignis gently asked Noctis if he was okay. “I’ve seen that kind of cough before. King Regis bent over like this when I was a kid once, and coughed for five minutes straight! The way the queen and my father looked at him they probably thought he was going to cough up blood! That ain’t normal, and if you’ve an inkling what’s going on here, spill it! We can’t use the cryptic bullshit.”

Chancellor and Shield glared each other down for a minute before Ardyn sighed and shrugged before turning around and starting to walk. “Answers I cannot give; answers you will not get by standing still – that is what you demand, Amicitia.”

Left with no other choice but to follow the only man who knew his way around Zegnautus Keep, they started moving.

Luna almost wanted to see the daemons in the cages and the sparking and twitching MTs back after a few minutes of walking through halls that were devoid of any signs of life, for all people they encountered stood perfectly still and only turned to stare down Noctis with their empty, vacant eyes.

The only thing that cut through the ominous silence was the shrill beeping of the doors with numbers emblazoned upon them, opening swiftly once they waited in front of them for a second. She would have expected the locks in this place to be better, but they _were_ following the imperial chancellor.

The pathways remained mostly undisturbed, with the occasional person often standing near open doors or pushed over stacks of papers. It became rather obvious that something had happened here that had made all these officials flee their rooms, but whatever it was that made them stand so perfectly still had caught them in the middle of their escape.

Ardyn eventually stopped in front of a door with a seven on it. His brows were furrowed as it started beeping and slid open after a few moments.

All it gave way to was a room for MT and daemon storage, barely worth noting. The MTs and daemons were also frozen still with wafts of black miasma drifting off them. The lights in this storage room did not look like the lights they used outside to keep away the daemons, a bright and almost unnatural light that made them look like they were about to burst into flame.

“Ah ha.” The chancellor nodded before turning back around to face the group, this time with an amused smile on his lips as he went over all of them… before stopping on Prompto. “Perhaps I ought to have said that earlier, young man, but I am quite afraid that you are our ticket through this place – I normally went in here through another entry point, often via airship and under the constant company of higher ranking officers and MTs. You do bare a striking resemblance to Verstael Besithia, after all. I had nearly forgotten some Lucian had had the guts to break into a research facility out in the tundra and whisked away one single future MT.”

“Wait, what!?”

But cryptic as he ever was, the chancellor pushed onwards, leaving the seven of them standing in the room rather dumbfounded for a second. Gladiolus and Ignis had stuck their heads together to discuss something in hushed voices while Prompto stood there staring at the doorway through which Ardyn had disappeared. Whatever it was that Shield and adviser discussed, it turned rather heated after a few moments before Ignis let out an almost offended huff.

“Fine, think what you want to think. But the fact that we ought to follow him remains – he is the only one who knows their way around here. I would rather follow a shifty chancellor than get lost in an eerie place with naught but people frozen in place.”

Ignis pat Prompto on the shoulder as he left the room, and Noctis followed suit. Luna was fairly certain that she heard Gladiolus groan when everyone else started leaving as well.

“If he turns around and stabs all of us--”

“Then that will be on me, worry not, Gladio. But I sincerely have no intention of getting lost on enemy ground.”

* * *

“So, let me get this straight… The entire MT project was based on combining the strength of the Scourge-driven daemons with human tissue, creating some sort of ultimate being, but due to the instability of said combination Besithia had to fall back on bringing in machinery to keep these things… _alive?”_

Ardyn had spent the better part of the last few minutes almost gleefully explaining the MT project to them in what was almost disgusting detail.

“More or less, yes.”

Ignis’ entire face was contorted with barely concealed disgust. “So the base of every MT… is a human.”

“A near perfect clone of Verstael Besithia.”

“Still human.”

It certainly explained why she had always felt uncomfortable around MTs. After all she felt the Scourge more intensely than anyone else on Eos, and if those troopers were truly but Scourge-infected humans at their base then all those times she had felt nauseous around them started to make sense in hindsight. The one who was not taking the news well was Prompto – he had been supposed to be one of these creatures they saw lying about, and every time they had to pass yet another room with cages scattered in it he looked as if he were about to burst into tears.

“Human or not, you can barely call them that once the process is completed. I have no idea who exactly managed to break into a facility and snatch away one of these clones, but the fact that someone did remains, and that is the only reason your friend is here the way he is. After that Besithia secured production better. Ultimately his goal was to… Ah.”

Ardyn had stopped and shifted his weight from one foot on the other. Up ahead was yet another storehouse they would have to move through, but the door was already open. Once Luna looked closer it seemed like this storehouse had at least one airship stored away in it – Noctis bristled a little however.

“That is most unfortunate.”

Frozen in place just like so many others further ahead… Her brother, a handful mercenaries, a vaguely familiar person and what looked like a Niff commander of some sort judging by his uniform. Their eyes were also on them, empty and vacant just like all the other people before them. Considering the way they were positioned there must have been some sort of discussion, and Luna noticed that Ravus’ phone was on the ground. He must have dropped it after sending her that last text, ominous as it was, before whatever was holding Zegnautus Keep in its grip had gotten to him.

His eyes followed Noctis just like all the mercenaries’ and the Niff commander’s did. Noctis himself looked rather uncomfortable all things considered; he had not officially seen Ravus since the day Tenebrae went up in flames, but he must have certainly heard all those announcements regarding Lucis and the hunt for the terrorists.

“Libertus!” Crowe froze in place, almost as perfectly still as all those Niffs after her exclamation. “What’s he doing here!?”

The Glaive was right, of course. Luna barely recognised the man after having only met him once, but the somewhat shocked expression Nyx stared at the scene with was effectively a confirmation that this was indeed the man who had helped them leave the crown city. It felt like a lifetime ago.

Before Luna could say anything a sharp, stinging pain shot through her entire body. Noctis stumbled as well, his other hand clutching the one where he was wearing the Ring of the Lucii. Though still shell-shocked by earlier revelations Prompto offered her a hand which she took with a whisper of gratitude. Ignis once more grabbed Noctis by the arms to help him stand still.

“Ksh...”

She took a few deep breaths while Noctis started clawing at his own hand in what looked like agony – Ignis eventually let go of him, took one of his hands, and gently pried the ring off. Once it was off his hand the searing pain stopped almost immediately and Luna wheezed as she stood back up straight. There was a faint hissing noise in the back of her head now, something not unlike what had happened following the defeat of the Archaean and the Fulgurian. Intrusive, unwelcome. She shook her head and thanked Prompto again.

“Alright, this thing’s staying off now.”

“But...”

“No, Noct, it looked like you were about to tear your own fingers off from where I stood.”

Fire, sudden and all-consuming. Fire as the Glaive burned. Fire as her brother writhed on the ground. Fire as she sat down next to her brother with Niff soldiers yelling in the background. Fire, fire, fire. Her biggest fear had been Noctis suffering under the ring just as all those other people, just as his own father had, and now in the middle of this eerie scene it had apparently started taking its toll. Noctis coughed a little as he rubbed the base of the finger the ring had been on before Gladiolus had taken it off, a defiant glare in his eyes. Shield and king glared at each other for a few heartbeats before Gladiolus grunted and Noctis huffed.

With that the older man handed the ring back to his liege, and Noctis almost reluctantly put it in one of his pockets.

“Fine. For now. But if we need it then I’m putting it back on, no matter what.”

“Thanks, Noct.”

Then they nodded at each other, whatever spat they had been having resolved.

Crowe meanwhile had walked over to the group of mercenaries and was staring down Libertus. He did not move just like the rest of the people and while that conversation between Noctis and Gladiolus had taken place, Nyx had walked over and put a hand on her shoulder.

“He’s alive.” He sounded rather relieved. “But...” Nyx turned around and crossed his arms as he looked at the others. “Say, Ardyn. Is there a chance you have a hypothesis or some crap on what the hell’s going on here? Can we undo this nonsense? Lib doesn’t deserve being frozen like some sorta popsicle, and I’m fairly certain Luna would like to have her brother back in a less frigid state, too. So, any bright ideas from the A--”

“Nothing immediately comes to mind, no.” Ardyn interrupted Nyx before he could say ‘Accursed’ and Luna remembered that they had not told the others about that quite yet. As far as Noctis and the others were concerned Nyx and Crowe had been using something developed by Niflheim to copy the power of kings; after all they did have the most advanced technology in the world and had apparently the devices to disable the Armiger.

“There’s gotta be something!”

For but a fleeting moment it looked like Ardyn was avoiding everyone’s gazes – it seemed unusual for him to let down his guard, but Luna noticed it. It was rather striking, considering the most emotion she had ever seen out of him had been the day he had started laughing when she brought up the Cosmogony. Everything else that came out of him even as he delivered bits and pieces of his story had been spoken with almost vile amusement. A grin seemed to be plastered across his features no matter what unless he was feigning shock or offense.

Luna narrowed her eyes. “You do have a theory, despite what you just said.”

“Perhaps I do. But thinking on it, it would most likely be wiser to let all these people stand still where they are. Something about this… reminds me of something.”

He didn’t say it, but this situation reminding him of something was most likely not a good thing. After all he still was the Accursed even if he strutted around Zegnautus Keep like the Chancellor of Niflheim; barely anything could change that fact. Except for the gods.

Luna walked over to the phone on the ground and picked it up. Its screen had cracked from the drop, but it was indeed stuck on the last message Ravus has sent her not that long ago. She looked up from it and at her brother, unmoving as he was. This place looked like it housed a control room of some sort – perhaps he had been planning to let her in with this and Ardyn’s help. It would explain the fact that there were only mercenaries scattered around the warehouse other than the small cluster around him.

The single Niff commander looked rather out of place, all things considered, but there was no telling what had gone on here before whatever had ensnared them had frozen them in place. Prompto was frowning at the Niff commander for a while and then leaned over to Gladiolus.

“Isn’t that the guy from the Norduscaen Blockade? The one in the Magitek who dropped out of that airship and who said that Cor’s story would be ending here?”

“Mhm. Never got a close look at the pilot, so I can’t say. If he spoke I could tell, but… can’t say I recognise the face, especially not that… blank.”

Luna cursed her luck, cursed her brother’s luck. She put the phone on the ground in front of him again and stared at him for a moment before turning back around with a sigh. She was fairly certain his eyes were focused on the Ring of the Lucii in Noctis’ pockets.

That was when she realised it. She turned back around a bit faster than she intended to.

Ravus had mentioned that he would be returning it when the time was right, when they arrived at Gralea and therefore he had proven himself worthy. The sword that King Regis had carried throughout his life, the very glaive that protected him where the Kingsglaive had not. It was still in its sheath and fastened to Ravus’ belt. Luna stared at it for a moment before taking a deep breath.

She was fairly certain Ravus would have handed it over with a stern glare, would have made Noctis swear that no matter what Luna would have to get out alive. She could almost hear him saying it as she gently removed the sword and cleared her throat.

“Noctis.”

“Yeah?”

She nodded at her brother, uncertain if he even saw her, and then walked over to Noctis. The Chosen’s eyes went rather wide when he saw what she was offering him now.

“That’s...”

“Ravus kept it safe and intended to hand it back to you once you arrived here. Considering he cannot… I will do it in his stead. It was never ours to keep, anyway, so please.”

Perhaps she should have said something else there. That she had seen how his father had gotten cut down by a man they did not know was also the man who was supposed to protect him. There were so many things Luna had left unsaid as the sword vanished in a burst of light, but all she could do was hold an admittedly rather fake smile.

“We ought to keep moving. Standing around and doing nothing is not going to help us in the long run; whatever has all these people in its grip will probably stop should we carry on.”

There was a moment of silence before everyone agreed. She noticed that Ardyn took a heartbeat longer than everyone else to agree. There was definitely something he was not mentioning, and she would have to force it out of him before long.

* * *

The hallways were becoming more narrow and winding as they ascended the place. The lights started flickering, and the completely still people started getting scarcer and scarcer. Eventually they wound up in a completely empty hallway for the first time since they had entered the Keep itself, and it was just about as unsettling as the ground buildings had been. This was supposed to be the supreme seat of the empire, the place that held technology beyond everyone’s reckoning and housed the imperial throne that Iedolas Aldercapt had inherited what seemed several lifetimes ago. He had outlived two Lucian kings, two Tenebraen Oracles, most likely several head supporters of the ministry in Accordo. This was supposed to be the place where all his might came together to forge the impenetrable fortress above the Imperial Capital Gralea.

There was nothing that sang of the victories of war here. It was cold, almost as sterile as hospitals all over Eos were without having the look of a hospital. It was dark, iron, cold and unwelcoming – the exact opposite of the Citadel in the Royal Crown City Insomnia in Lucis. Where the Citadel had been warm and welcoming despite the fact it was built almost exclusively of black stone, Zegnautus Keep seemed harsh and hostile. There had been countless windows, often with elaborate carvings surrounding them and sometimes adorned with curtains that looked like they had been woven of the finest silks in Lucis. The light had all but poured into the Citadel. Zegnautus was lifeless in comparison, iron and metal and no windows, no heartbeat, all military. The Aldercapt family was as old as the Lucis Caelum family, so there should have been plenty of history to go by, but absolutely nothing told the history of the empire.

Perhaps the empire’s history was this lifeless iron building that was supposed to be a one-way prison for those who opposed the empire itself. Countless horror stories about this place existed all across Eos, and Luna had heard quite a few of them from frightened children as she did her duty.

Her group’s footsteps echoed through the empty, dark hallway. It was ominous in many ways.

“Where did you say they kept the crystal again?”

“Top floor, behind barred doors. No matter how much access a MT has, that one is off-limits. We either need the central computer or a special key card with the authorisation to enter, but both of them will only be found near the throne room.”

The throne room. Of course there would be a throne room. There had been one in Fenestala Manor too, though it was rarely used and all but sealed off after her mother died. After all they had been annexed by the empire, and there was absolutely no need for royal children vying for the throne of a country without independence. Ravus had hated it at first, had demanded to be taken serious since he was the prince. That bright red face with the hand print on one cheek had scared her almost senseless because Ravus had been right. After that he mellowed down, signed up for the army. Vanished even though he was not dead but Luna had still felt like she had lost mother and brother both.

“You don’t have one?”

“I’ve been absent for quite a while. They override security codes once a month and everyone has to get new ones. I failed to be present.”

“Will the emperor be within the throne room once we arrive?”

“Had this been a normal infiltration I would have said yes.” Ardyn shook his head slightly. “But this entire experience has been nothing but bewildering. Perhaps we will. Perhaps we will not. I cannot say with full conviction that he will still be there.”

The hallways went on and on, and slowly but steadily it became harder to breathe. Something was weighing down on her, making it exceptionally hard to focus. A strange sensation that came from up ahead made her entire being revolt a little. Something was telling her to run and she was going against better judgement here. It had been the same on the roof that night in Insomnia when High Commander Glauca had approached her as she caught some fresh air without her ever vigilant guard by her side. She should have never sent Nyx away that night, but in the end it had all been planned by Niflheim.

By Ardyn.

This however did not seem like he had planned it at all. The strange energy she felt up ahead started pulsing softly, almost reassuringly. She had definitely felt this before but did not remember where, but her mind once more wandered back to the short time she spent in Insomnia. She had not felt a pulse in Insomnia; the city had been ever quiet until it was drowned in the screeching and searing sensation that the empire’s daemons brought with them. Ardyn had said earlier that the daemons that the empire had dropped upon that battlefield and then later in Insomnia had been created in the labs, by the same people who had perfected the MT project.

Why did her mind wander back to Insomnia? There was absolutely nothing of the sort there that warranted her memory to go into this direction. Was this some sort of warning that the Draconian lay underneath the city, ever sleeping? Was this to be their final battleground upon which the bells of either victory or death rang? She couldn’t figure it out and apparently started frowning as they continued on, considering the way Ardyn looked at her for a moment. She must have missed an entire conversation while thinking.

“… Good to see that the most important people in this group listen well.”

Noctis also looked like he had been ripped out of his own thoughts and he scowled at Ardyn. It had been but a split second but Luna noticed that he had been thinking about the ring.

“As I was saying, up ahead all but lies the heart of the empire. Considering the state this entire fortress is in, we might be able to get in, get what we need, and move on immediately.”

He left it unsaid, but Luna was rather certain that he was worried about something up ahead was not frozen like the rest of the fortress.

* * *

They all stopped and stared at the scene up ahead in horror.

The throne room seemed like a crude copy of the one in the Citadel. Instead of a council surrounding the throne and looking down on the person speaking to them it was a single throne, surrounded by heavy machinery. It also definitely looked like someone could easily lock this room within a room up.

The red lights unsettled her – it looked like this was a storage room as much as it was the heart of the empire. Just like the rest of the keep it was held in an eerie silence where even breathing sounded like someone was yelling in the mountains. There didn’t seem to be a person around, but Luna knew better than to judge anything from the empire; for all she knew this place all but contained multitudes of troopers behind barred doors, ready to strike.

The Accursed moved with a strange hop in his step once the first shock of seeing the throne room like this dropped off. Noctis leaned over to Ignis to whisper something in his ear – most likely an explanation of the situation on hand.

Luna had imagined a hundred times that one day she would meet the emperor himself. How she would hopefully stand beside her brother and Noctis, perhaps King Regis too. That they would bring justice upon the man who had so ruinously furthered imperial conquest, who had all but permitted the murder of Oracle Sylva as they finally made a move on Fenestala Manor to swallow up the tiny part of Tenebrae that they had ever left in peace. So many times she wished it could have been her alongside Noctis, saving the world and bringing this man to justice before the two of them died.

The man sat skewered on his own throne, a strangely glinting sword cleaving his head all but in twain. Prompto gagged somewhere behind them and excused himself, and even the blind Ignis’ face creased a little in disgust as he, too, excused himself and went to check up on Prompto.

Ardyn reached out for the sword, only for it to burst into light. It reminded her a lot of how the Sword of the Father had vanished earlier when Noctis had added it to his Armiger. Ardyn flinched backwards a little with an expression that all but told that this sword’s energy was more than they could believe. He hesitated for a moment, apparently lost in thought, before he decided to let out a dry and unhappy laugh.

“Well, that explains quite a lot.” They weren’t sure if he was talking to them or to himself, but he did reach forward again to procure a thin plastic card from the dead emperor’s robes. “That takes care of the access issue at any rate.”

Noctis narrowed his eyes and raised his hands.

“Hold on right there.”

He had barely said anything in the last few minutes, the thoughtful and almost angry expression on his face as he thought. Now he once again looked mad, somehow, and Luna felt like she knew what was going to happen next. Too many things left unsaid. Too many people left in the dark.

“You two – the creep and Luna – you two know something about this entire situation that you’re not telling me. Hell, Nyx and Crowe probably know more about this than I do at this point.” Somewhere from behind Ignis inhaled sharply as Noctis spoke. “Well. I definitely didn’t think we’d find Emperor Aldercapt dead on his own throne with the entire facility frozen in one place. Whatever you know about this, spit it out already. I’m sick of being left in the dark.”

Luna held her breath.

Ardyn, however, let out a dry laugh once more. “Permission to show rather than tell, Lady Oracle?”

“… Fine. Just… don’t overdo it.”

The silence in the room was stifling as Ardyn put a hand on his face. All of a sudden the silence went from unsettling but still to choking and heavy. Though the light was already dim in this place it seemed as if it became ever dimmer, as if darkness were encroaching the place. Gladiolus let out a confused grunt once the light almost entirely vanished to leave them wrapped in what looked like swirling layers of darkness. They had to have seen this before – it was, after all, magic used by daemons. They had made money as hunters much like Luna, Nyx and Crowe had; they had to have seen this kind of magic before.

Surely enough, the Shield of the King drew his weapons and pointed them at the man standing in the centre of that sudden onslaught of darkness.

“The hell?!”

“Light begets darkness, hope begets despair. You of all people should know that, was your journey to be one of hope that started out in despair. A foil to all exists – even the gods are foils to each other. Ramuh and Titan; Ifrit and Shiva; Leviathan and Bahamut. That is how the world is balanced, and thus did the healer contract sickness, thus did the friend betray him. For trust begets betrayal. Health begets sickness.”

Ardyn withdrew his hand from his face, and Gladiolus nearly dropped his sword. Noctis took a step backwards.

Luna sighed. “The Chosen was to purge the darkness from our star in self-sacrifice. For the Accursed carries the source of the Scourge within his body – it grants him life never-ending; he is too impure to pass beyond the gates that Shiva watches. To kill that which cannot die the power of the crystal unleashed and the Ring of the Lucii that had ever fed on the powers of the Lucis Caelum bloodline are needed. But the living cannot pass to the gates where the Accursed would be waiting until his body regenerated. So the powers that surpass even the gods are needed, but those can only be granted… in death. Before you stands...”

Ardyn took a deep bow, not even a sarcastic one this time. His face was still contorted, with black seeping out of his eyes and the corners of his mouth, making the smile look like something one would see in an almost cheesy horror film. “Ardyn Caelum, better known as Imperial Chancellor Ardyn Izunia. The Accursed, the blight upon our star, the undying heretic, the maestro behind most of the grand events in history that left an impact on the Kingdom of Lucis. At your _humblest_ service, Your Majesty.”

Whatever Luna had been expecting, it was not this. She’d have expected Noctis to scream, to attack. Perhaps to simply start yelling, perhaps some confused laughter.

Not this utter shocked silence as even Prompto and Ignis stopped dead in their tracks. The only sound that echoed through the room was Gladiolus de-summoning his weapons, an equally shocked expression on his face.

After what seemed like an eternity, with Ardyn having fixed up his face once more and the swirling darkness vanishing slowly, Noctis shook his head.

“Caelum,” he said, “like Lucis Caelum?”

“Yes and no. Caelum was the healer, Lucis was the commoner. Though all but adopted, he yet remained my best friend – until he drove the knife into my back after years of what I thought was mutual unwavering trust. I was mistaken, and paid the price for it, and the crown that was promised to the healer went to the commoner instead.” He bowed again, this time clearly as a rude gesture. “Not that history would know. All history knows is the Accursed, banished for a while by the first king and the first Oracle – al history knows is that you and the Oracle were to kill me to return light to the world.”

A sharp pain went through Luna’s head, but she stood straight. Noctis grunted something, and Ardyn narrowed his eyes a little. It was this moment that she realised the three of them were experiencing something similar, those sudden surges of pain.

“The ring, the crystal? Once they were mine. Your kingdom was supposed to be mine. Even the Oracle’s powers are rather similar to mine. They all but replaced me, for I made one grave mistake in my travels. Airship engineers should not be playing saviour I realised too late, being guided by the gods or no. And so I granted one restless soul peace, for that is what a healer must learn in their life. Sometimes there is no helping the afflicted. So I did – I granted the last living Sol priest their eternal respite, and became the walking source of the Scourge myself. The gods, their tool suddenly tainted, turned against it. Too bad that the Source cannot die, for there are tremendous amounts of energy needed to purge a soul that tainted. The last resort – two thousand years it took for the Chosen to be born right as the Ring of the Lucii and the crystal reached their ultimate powers.”

Noctis stared at his hand. The ring glittered in the strange light, the energy it always seemed to emit silent all of a sudden.

“And so spoke the Oracle to the Accursed: ‘You are under my command, or else I will end myself’. Not precisely the beginning of how a story about fulfilling a prophecy should go, but here we stand regardless. As playthings of the gods ever are, the Accursed could not deny her demand, she was needed for the prophecy up to a certain point. Without an Oracle the slumbering Hexatheon would never wake, leaving the Chosen helpless and hopeless. The immortal would remain immortal, for there would be none to await at the gates to the beyond; he would be expelled as he had been hundreds of times.” He sighed dramatically. “I am frankly rather sick of playing by the gods’ demands and living in general. Those that are made immortal have a different opinion of Eos than those who only live for it for a limited amount of years. And as someone who has been born, I would quite like to say the following: sacrificing innocents to defeat something the gods could most likely sweep aside if they but put their minds to it for once and were helped by a number of mortals? Lunafreya there had the right idea, and led both you and I on a path very unlike the one we would have walked otherwise. As you heard in Tenebrae, I would quite like to see how this ends.”

Noctis crossed his arms with a huff. “You’re the _Accursed_ the prophecy talks about?”

“Shocking, I know.”

“No. Not really, now that I think about it. Something about you was always off, your absolutely baffling weirdness aside.”

Ardyn sighed again and shrugged at Luna. She herself was kind of staring at Noctis, her mind racing. She would have expected him to scream. To complain. Not to accept that he had the man he had been born to kill was in their jolly group of companions.

“Any other confessions to make?”

Luna blinked – she was fully aware that people were now staring at her, but before she could focus on something she wanted to say, Nyx stepped forwards. He didn’t say anything but drew one of his daggers instead. Within a moment it burst into dark energy not unlike what had enveloped them earlier. He followed that up with a snort and tossed it away, only to vanish in a burst of red light. He reappeared beside Ignis.

The blind man let out a startled gasp. “Noct, did you...”

“I did not.”

“Then the chancellor, I presume?”

Nyx and Crowe confirmed the adviser’s suggestion, which Prompto followed up with questions about it. Noctis merely tilted his head.

“’I asked my companions about it and they explained how it was when they had the king’s power’, wasn’t it?” Luna bit her lower lip, but all Noctis did was shoot her a friendly if a little confused grin. “I get why you didn’t say anything and merely called him Santos before, but… really, you can trust me. Absolutely. We’re friends.”

She slowly exhaled. Perhaps it was about time to confess that she had been there when the king died, when the queen turned on her husband’s murderer. How she could have prevented all of this if she had but been braver.

Her train of thought was interrupted when Noctis let out a low hiss and reached into his pockets. He yowled as he tossed the Ring of the Lucii on the ground.

“The hell!? Why’s this thing so damn hot all of a sudden!?”

Luna attempted to pick it up for Noctis, but she too withdrew her hands with a yelp. It was unbearably hot indeed, and Noctis and she exchanged a worried glance.

The Niff throne room in Gralea was eerily silent. The empire would be without a ruler, without most executives of the military branch alive. The silence here was a requiem for a warmongering nation that all but wanted to go back to the glorious days of Solheim – one planet, one rule. One united country. The fact that they had forgotten that warfare was what had brought Solheim to its knees all but made the claim ever the more hilarious.

But as the Niflheim empire lay in shambles, still and unmoving, the Accursed picked up the Ring of the Lucii after both the Lucian king and the Tenebraen Oracle had been unable to.

* * *

The ascent was surprisingly sombre. Luna had imagined it to be triumphant, with the empire defeated at their hands. That was how those stories always went, after all. That was how it was supposed to be. She and Noctis side by side with their companions behind them, ready to lay claim to the crystal that had been snatched away from his home. Ready to face destiny face on.

Instead they heard the story of an engineer gifted with the power to heal, of a loving father who took in his son’s recently orphaned best friend. The children went as far as jokingly mashing their last names together. The secrets of airship engineering never left the direct bloodline of the family – therefore the adopted son blatantly remained that. An adopted child, unable to help his best friend and surrogate father. Perhaps Ardyn had mistaken Izunia Lucis’ intentions when the man suggested that Ardyn did as the people suggested. So they travelled together, at first only the two of them and the Chocobo Ardyn had raised in the year before they left their home. Soon enough they were a group of four people – people Ardyn trusted despite all that.

The healer was soon approached by the gods that had given him his power. They promised him glory and the vacant throne, gifted him a crystal and a ring he could use to amplify his powers if he but learned how to control them.

Ardyn Lucis Caelum and his adopted brother Izunia Lucis Caelum. His best friend. The only person in the world he trusted blindly. Their travels soon became a story of hope for those still suffering after the fall of Solheim. He was chosen by the gods, after all, they had shown him their favour.

And then they came across a man writhing on the ground, spitting black blood. He said that if Ardyn valued his life he would not attempt to heal him. The man was the last remaining priest of the Infernian, the man who was considered the Source of the Scourge. As long as he lived the Scourge would never truly vanish, he had wheezed. But the fact that his body kept regenerating as the gods turned him away at the gates to the beyond repeatedly remained. The Source was undying. A pitiful creature, and Ardyn let justice and mercy guide his hands once.

That was the one and only time that the ring and the crystal he had been given listened to his voice. He granted the Source rest not knowing that the Scourge was a parasite that latched onto living beings. And so Ardyn and his group carried on not knowing that Ardyn had become the new Source until later.

Izunia managed to convince one of their companions to use this fact against Ardyn. After all Ardyn was supposed to be the next ruler. But a king could not be so corrupted by what he was supposed to purge from the earth. It was dangerous.

The fourth of their group found themselves on the end of their own weapon. Not even the supposedly god-guided healer would mend fatal wounds like this. Before long, Izunia truly turned the populace against Ardyn. The man they had heralded as their saviour was now naught more but the disgusting creature sent to torture them, and so they attacked. What were all powers in the world against a mob of people that he had sworn to protect, to heal? He did not raise his weapons as Izunia struck him down.

Broken and bleeding all he did was curse his fate until finally his breath stopped after agonising hours on his own in the dark.

Shiva turned him away at the gates to the beyond.

The unspoken question in the elevator was simple: Why were the gods so unjust?

The elevator opened, and Luna nearly choked on the sheer energy radiating from up ahead. The crystal in all its glory, bright and ominous and so very gentle. At least that was what she had always heard about it, was how she had felt the magic of the late King Regis. Gentle and protecting, a power that would be part of the concoction that would wipe away the last specks of darkness from their planet. The light she prayed to every time she healed, the light that would pierce the dark veil that the Accursed would lay over the earth as the King of Light made ready for his ascension at the divine providence within the crystal.

She felt nothing of the sort now.

It was a stinging power, painful and not unlike what she felt whenever she was close to someone infected with the Scourge. Something that was definitely wrong, something that needed to be fixed. That was how Ardyn had felt the first time she had seen him in Lestallum, that was what the man most likely still felt like once he let down the walls around his own oversaturated darkness. She only just now realised that he had deliberately held his powers in check around her for that overwhelming darkness was too much to bear for simple mortals like her, an Oracles powers by her side or not.

Noctis gagged audibly as he stepped onto the walkway. Ignis had immediately put a hand on his shoulder and leaned in to whisper something in his ear. Soothing words most likely, though whatever they had truly been remained a mystery to everyone around them.

Ardyn still led the way, his steps surprisingly certain for someone who had openly admitted that he would have loved to ambush Noctis here after a stressful chase through Zegnautus Keep in another version of these events, only to relay to him the story of how his brother and Noctis’ ancestor betrayed him. Luna knew that she would have been dead by now in that version’s tale. It went without saying. The price of the Covenants was too much to bear for a simple Oracle like her, and she had carried that of Shiva within her heart for almost all her life. That of Titan, Ramuh and Leviathan would have sapped her of all her strength, and it was easy enough to guess that once the sea goddess had woken in Altissia Ardyn would have disposed of her if she did not die in the battle herself.

The crystal.

That was what had forwarded the vision that revealed Noctis as the King of Light. The hope of the gods, the light for the world. The life born to die.

The closer they got to that, the weaker Luna’s legs became. Nyx and Crowe both offered her their hands. A reassuring gesture, but Luna declined it silently. She knew she could depend on them. But this walk was one she would have to finish by herself.

Noctis did lean against Ignis as he walked, obviously exhausted for some reason or another by now. The energy in this place was so overbearing that it became harder and harder to breathe, until at last they stopped in front of the crystal. It was a symbol of hope, a gesture of divine goodwill. The thing that had driven the Accursed into his situation, the thing that had chosen Noctis as its sacrifice. Ardyn’s inability to use it had started this whole story.

Now all that remained was the Draconian, and perhaps they could finally bring this story to an end. Luna breathed in.

Breathed out.

Then Ardyn started laughing. It was an ugly laughter, no joy whatsoever in his voice.

“You left it as warning. You are the reason time seemingly stopped in his place – I had my suspicions as we climbed the Keep. Those eyes on those two. The eyes on me. The eyes on the ring. And then the sword in the skull of the emperor. A final warning, perhaps?”

Who was he talking to? The crystal was divine, yes, but devoid of life. It but forwarded the visions of the Hexatheon. It was an amplifier, a catalyst.

She heard the faint ringing of a bell.

No.

That wasn’t a bell.

That was the sound of swords clanging against each other. A familiar sound, haunting. Her life had ever been accompanied by armed people. Her brother, the people assigned to her ‘safety’ by the empire. The king. Queen Aulea had been armed with a weapon more terrifying than those of steel, but that sound she heard now was nothing like what she had heard that night in Insomnia.

Yet it was familiar. Out of this world.

Rising above the crystal was a shadow. Blades seemingly made of light circled the shadow.

Then it all snapped into reality, and Luna and Noctis both sank to their knees. Even Ardyn staggered, but he remained on his feet, his expression dark and unreadable as he stared down the creature above the crystal.

“Perhaps it is time for simple formalities.” He did not turn his back to the crystal and his voice shook. That was absolutely out of character for Ardyn and it terrified Luna more than the fact her entire world was turning and wavering, with Noctis groaning in pain on the walkway next to her. “King of Light Noctis Lucis Caelum, Oracle Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, may I introduce? This is the Draconian, head of the Hexatheon. The foil to the Hydraean.”

The ringing sound of the swords hitting each other stopped as they became blades of steel.

“Bahamut.”


	8. the silent unknown abyss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Have you truly never considered this path of action?”  
> “You are more intelligent than you give yourself credit for, Lunafreya. But alas, I have to disappoint."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fic was an experiment. i... succeeded with what i attempted to do. namely finishing nanowrimo for the first time in my life. i mean, i did 80k of the fic and basically took a month-long break after that because i burnt myself out on this thing good with nano.  
> i learned a lot writing this, all things considered. hopefully thatll seep into my next project!  
> those who read it so far, i hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> the title and the chapter names all come from Etrian Odyssey III; if theres anyone out there who guessed that without googling it specifically, you are more than welcome to come kick in my front teeth.

The story was always the same, no matter how many books she consulted. Pages upon pages upon pages of how the remains of the Hexatheon, following the days of fire that brought an empire to its knees, had ever benevolently given Eos a reason to hope. Hope – that was what the story told. For no matter how many years the Accursed was to march over blighted earth underneath darkened skies, the Chosen and the Oracle were to guide light back to Eos. To banish the darkness, perhaps not hand in hand but in a joint effort. How the Chosen was to rise with the support of the other five to face down the Infernian and the Accursed, how the Chosen was to die for ancient sins long since forgotten by time.

At some point Lunafreya Nox Fleuret accepted it as gospel. Listened intently to the lessons the High Messenger taught her. Read the letters the Chosen sent her knowing that both their lives would be wasted in this ancient conflict that had long since been resolved. The Hexatheon could have cleansed the Scourge from the planet hundreds of years ago – they had had their Chosen. They had had a person able to heal without keeling over. But they chose not to teach that person how to until the darkness he healed had him in its grip and it was too late. So the second plan was set in motion. More sacrifices to rekindle a flame, to light a pyre. Sacrifices to sweep away the darkness the gods themselves had let fester on Eos and in the Infernian’s heart.

Luna remained on her knees. She could barely see – the energy of this place made her eyes water and her head pound. Breathing was as hard just as it had been during these spells of dizziness before, and she clearly heard the melody of the elements. Joining earth, thunder, water and ice now was something that felt like a sizzle, the embers of war, a warmth she had never once forgotten. Fire joined these elements as she kneeled before the Draconian, an energy that had haunted her life from the moment her homeland fell into the hands of the empire. An element that crept through her nightmares, a power that smote those that were unfit for the power of the ring. Her brother. The man of the Kingsglaive. Queen Aulea.

Noctis.

It took her breath away more than the energy around her, the immediate panic subsiding slowly once she realised that Ardyn was holding up the Ring of the Lucii. The energy emanating from the crystal wavered for a second, she felt Bahamut lean forward a bit as she rubbed her burning eyes.

Ardyn in turn bowed. Ironically. The very motion was too slow, too calculated even from where Luna was sitting. Noctis was wheezing somewhere next to her, a yelp escaping him as Ardyn bowed. It felt like reality had slowed down and she watched in horror as the Draconian’s wings moved slowly.

Bahamut was always described as benevolent ruler of the high, the head of the Hexatheon. Strict but always just, with naught but the best for Eos and its inhabitants on his mind. The very deity that had gifted the first Oracle her power, the very selfsame deity that had granted the Lucis Caelum bloodline the crystal and the Ring of the Lucii. The one who was to guide the Chosen on his path, for his covenant was the only one that was to be given – Bahamut’s trial was to be gaining the favour of the other four, to ready the Chosen for the inevitable fight against the Accursed and the Infernian. To strengthen. To guide.

Never to guard.

If Bahamut’s resting place since the rise of the Accursed had been the crystal… Luna gagged as she dragged herself back to her feet. The power was still overwhelming, but this realisation overcame even the urge to curl up and let this pass. Let time wash her and her sins away. But she realised that Bahamut had idly sat by and let time pass as royal after royal toiled away under the weight of the Ring of the Lucii. Their very lifespan had been shortened so much that King Regis looked like a man aged beyond his years, so much that there were rarely any Lucis Caelums outliving their spouses. The crystal that let itself be taken idly, that let Insomnia burn, that let the world be slowly but steadily be consumed by the fires of war.

She stood, barely, her head hung low. She couldn’t look at the crystal.

“Long has it been since our paths crossed last, Draconian.” The uncertainty had vanished from Ardyn’s voice as he moved back up to stand straight, the ring still visible in his hand. “Quite a lot has happened since – not that you would know.”

If Ardyn was waiting for an answer, it never came. Accursed and Draconian continued staring one another down; one clad in shining armour and one looking nothing like the Accursed that scriptures told stories of until after a minute of silence Ardyn let out a long sigh. He almost carelessly tossed the Ring of the Lucii up and caught it again – even out of the corner of her eyes Luna saw that the Draconian’s eyes were on the ring rather than the man holding it. Just like the people frozen in place…

She let out a cough. Speaking was too hard under the brunt of this strange pulsating energy that felt so familiar but so foreign.

It was Ardyn who then gestured at the deity in front of them. “I’ll have to admit, that was a neat little trick. You almost managed to completely unsettle me and trigger the bestial urge to flee this place while I still could. Alas and alack, I am quite afraid that despite all those years and all those denouncements and all the actions wiped from history so it fits my brother’s narrative – I yet remain a human being. And a human being can be _surprisingly_ stubborn, as surely you realise by now, Bahamut.”

Again no answer but the man laughed and opened the hand he had caught the ring with. It lay perfectly still in his hand, glimmering in the light of the crystal. At long last Luna managed to stand, Noctis managed to drag himself to his feet as well, and Bahamut’s gaze went from the ring to the face of the man holding it.

She barely even caught the first sword as it moved. It happened so fast that it snapped her out of her dizziness.

_Clang._

The sound of steel hitting something solid. The sound of glass shattering. The luminescent red weaponthat blocked the blow, solid steel against what looked like an elaborate glass ornament – but it did not break. For a moment she wanted to believe that this was Ardyn pulling a weapon from the same space Noctis stored his, but the weapon never gained a solid form. It remained crystal clear, shining red against the stark blue glimmer of the crystal.

“Some are perhaps stubborn enough to change the course of history. Doubtlessly there are other ways this could have gone, but as far as the story was told it all began with a queen who outlived which she should not. Two Glaives who lived through what should have ended them. An Oracle who sought a new path, a Chosen who walked it. Those who sleep cannot rightfully claim the right to the future – it belongs to them.”

The steel sword was yanked back by its wielder, still floating. They slowly started rotating around Bahamut, ominously, menacingly. Ardyn simply dismissed his sword with a wave of his free hand. The other still held the ring that was supposed to be his.

“ _That is the path you would walk – Oracle, Chosen?”_

The voice was nowhere near as towering as Leviathan’s had been. It sounded both comforting and like nails on metal boards at the same time, commanding yet trustworthy. It was not exactly how Luna would have imagined the Draconian to speak; but then again she had not ever imagined that the Glacian would speak with Gentiana’s voice. Much like the others of the Hexatheon before him he spoke in the tongue that the Astrals used, which Luna had been able to understand since she had been born, which Noctis had started to understand when he had been appointed the Chosen who would save Eos. For some reason Luna would have expected Bahamut to speak the mortal tongue, but seeing that none of their companions reacted to the deity speaking it became clear that they did not understand what he had said. Gladiolus and Nyx had moved between the towering god and Noctis and Luna respectively. Prompto and Crowe remained behind them still, ready to pull their guns at a moment’s notice. Ardyn still stood in the front. Ignis stood beside Noctis.

Before she could say anything, it was Noctis who huffed as he grabbed onto Ignis’ arm. “It is. We’ve come so far. We’ll not stop while we’re ahead.”

“ _Even knowing you would doom the land to its blight? For beside you stands the Source. It cannot vanish by wishes alone.”_

Ardyn moved just ever so slightly. A sway, perhaps just a roll of the eyes, but Luna caught it. He had moved when Bahamut called him the Source rather than anything else.

“That we know.” She put a hand on Nyx’s shoulder as she spoke. “But we would no abandon the land either. Eos is not entirely without hope – just not the hope that you would have given it.”

The swords were slowly rotating around the crystal, and Luna all but felt that if she said the wrong thing it would rain divine blades upon them in an instant. They had indeed come too far to back out of it and give Noctis to the crystal so he could gather his power in divine provenance.

“ _So speak, blood of the Oracle, if you believe your heart and cause are true. They no longer seem to be that way, however.”_

It was so disgustingly upsetting to be addressed like this that Luna felt anger rise in the pit of her stomach as she stepped out from behind Nyx and walked up to stand next to Ardyn. Up here the raw energy from the crystal once more made her stagger, but she did not want to show weakness in this crucial moment.

“At first I thought… if we but reversed the sides it might work. The Accursed used to be a Chosen. The Chosen used to be a normal mortal. Two sides of the same coin; if we but fought the Hexatheon to gain their displeasure rather than their favour… perhaps then at least Noctis could be saved. I was ready and willing to die for this cause, even if my companions had disagreed. But the fact would remain that there would be casualties. After the Hydraean fell… I was not sure of it any longer. In truth I feel like I know less than before. But even if we stand here scorned by you, scorned by the rest of the Six… I will find a way. Come what may. Hope does not flicker out that easily.”

“ _So your path remains a mystery. What you lost along the way was one chosen to wear the ring without repercussions. What you hope to gain does not mean it will lessen the suffering you will cause by straying from the given path.”_

Luna knew that. She had assumed they would be dragging the crystal back to Insomnia triumphantly together with her brother and the mercenaries under his employ. That she would have some time before she would have to explain herself to the Draconian. Those hopes were dashed now and she was out of time.

She didn’t have a solution to the issue that arose during their way through the Keep.

Ardyn did not put on the ring. He carried it just as she had, and she was certain that he felt its influence as he had during their travels. Noctis was no longer able to wear it, which meant the Lucii rejected him just as she had predicted they would. The crystal remained an uncontrollable entity without someone able to wear the ring.

Noctis cleared his throat behind them.

She had never really gotten what he was thinking when he looked like he was lost in thought. They were close, yes, but not used to actually being physically close. Over these last weeks she felt like she had gotten to know him better than she ever could have wished to, and finally understood that what she had felt at first had been childish infatuation. The fact that they were supposed to be pair straight from a fairy tale, only to learn that they were the protagonists in a tragedy. No books in all the world had ever taught her how to read people’s thoughts.

“There… there is a solution, I believe.” His voice was clear, confident even. It reminded her of his parents in the short amount of time that she had gotten to know both king and queen. “It is… rather simple, actually.”

She turned around to look at Noctis as he slowly walked up to stand between Ardyn and her. His gaze flicked to the Ring of the Lucii in Ardyn’s hands for a moment before he turned to look up at Bahamut. This was the deity that would have willingly sent him off like a lamb to the slaughter. Luna felt nothing but contempt for this god, but Noctis’ expression remained unreadable. Had he held himself like a prince unwilling to shoulder a burden until Leviathan, he had carried himself like someone who was fully ready to take the torch that had been offered to him. But now the way he held himself like a true king. Not slouched for once. Calm and collected, just as Queen Aulea had been. Regal like King Regis had been. That was what a person chosen by the gods who was defying the selfsame gods was supposed to look like.

“The issue we all have is the… Source of it all. Whatever it is exactly that Ardyn Izunia carries, whatever it was that the Infernian brought into this world. I’ve had my theories before, but after hearing the Accursed’s story, I realised something. I was chosen to take him once more to the gates that Shiva watches; the Beyond. Then I was to use the power of the Ring of the Lucii, the crystal, and whatever powers I would be given through the covenants to wind up at the gates myself. I was to… deliver mercy where none is deserved but also long overdue.”

Noctis reached for the Ring of the Lucii. He held it for a moment before blue wisps started dancing around his hand. He managed to hold it like that for about a minute before he let out a low hiss and handed the ring back to Ardyn. Luna herself looked at Noctis’ slightly burnt hand in terror. The flames had been blue before they had started engulfing Ravus’ arm and the man of the Kingsglaive. Blue for a split moment before they burst into the red that haunted her since the day Tenebrae fell.

“I can no longer do that. If I were to attempt calling the kings and queens of Lucis now, they would strike me down where I stand.” Noctis would not be like his mother, rushing off to take care of the issue at hand and ensure the others got out unscathed. “Rightfully so, I realised. But. There is one thing, one so excruciatingly simple thing that we all overlooked. You of the Six because you have to keep Eos at large in mind, for Eos is eternal like you are. Or something like that, I’m sure. Something that my line overlooked, because we were supposed to wait for the Chosen to be born and do as destiny said. Something that Luna’s bloodline overlooked too, because they were busy taking care of the injured, the ailing, Eos at large as it bided its time until my birth. … Something that Ardyn overlooked.”

It felt as if everything held its breath as Noctis talked. Luna definitely held hers. Ardyn was staring at his supposed opponent. Even Bahamut’s swords started rotating around their master and held still in the air. It felt like the calm before the storm, and Luna knew that if Noctis said the wrong thing now this was going to be the end of them. Someone else would be chosen as Ardyn regained consciousness after a while. The cycle would repeat until someone managed to take out the Accursed.

“He was the Chosen once. Nobody taught him how to use the powers of the crystal, and so he did as he thought was correct – until he made a mistake. A mistake he paid for. A mistake _you_ paid for, and so you were forced to seek another and promise him exactly what you promised Ardyn. My ancestor. But… Luna’s theory on how to change our fate got me thinking. Ardyn was a Chosen once. Ardyn is the Accursed now but… does that cancel the fact he was Chosen once out?” Noctis sighed and shook his head. “Gods, I don’t know how to say this. What I’m trying to say… can’t we just… teach Ardyn how to use the ring properly? He can purify the Scourge. You can let him through the gates. Take care of the Source and the Scourge will soon follow. You don’t need to… wipe everything out all at once. What’d you call it, Iggy...”

All eyes turned on the blind man, who shrunk away a little. Though he could not see he definitely heard the movement, he definitely felt the sudden shift in energy as the Draconian turned his gaze to him. Ignis had always been a perfectly composed man, calm and calculating where Noctis was not. Seeing him actually shrink in apparent embarrassment was endearing somehow, despite the odd situation.

“Noct, really, we just… I never… what are you even talking about?”

“Health studies, second year, uh… something regarding eliminating sickness...”

Ignis removed his glasses. Though blind as ever he had both his eyes wide open and his head turned into Noctis’ general direction. There was blank shock on his face as his composure returned bit by bit, until at last he exhaled slowly.

“… Herd immunity.”

“That’s it!” Noctis turned back around and bowed before Bahamut. “If we do not let Eos fall into darkness there is no need for us to burn it all away at once. If we were to burn away the Source and spend our time trying to get rid of what’s left, we would get rid of it eventually.”

Only the crystal shimmered as silence reigned over the place. The swords were suspended in mid-air, with the Draconian staring at them.

They had been prepared to fight Bahamut to the death, but now the deity looked as if someone had claimed that the sky was green. Ardyn, too, had frozen on the spot with an expression that Crowe would describe as ‘hilariously dumb’, Luna realised. Everyone remained still for what seemed like eternity, until at last Ardyn moved. He turned to look at the Ring of the Lucii still placed in his hand, then at the Draconian.

Then he started laughing. Ugly snorting laughter, to the point he had to double over to keep himself from falling backwards. He had his hand curled around the ring by now, and still he laughed. Laughed until he was wheezing with what looked like black tears streaming down his face. Once more she felt the familiar throb of the Scourge from his direction, but still he laughed in-between the yelping gasps for air that he technically did not even need. It made the whole situation seem even stranger than it was, but eventually he let himself slide to the ground.

The Accursed sat in front of the crystal. Accursed and Draconian stared at each other for a moment before Ardyn drew in a shaky breath.

“He,” his voice was raw from all the laughing, “has a point. That does seem like a rather simple solution. And one that might work in the end – you yourself must have felt it just like I did. Those two? They gained the Infernian’s favour without ever having fought him. They have all but been given permission to do as they please with the Scourge. With the Source, even.”

“… _That… That is your path, Chosen?”_

Ardyn continued wheezing on the ground as Noctis took a step forward. The crystal seemed a lot less malevolent all of a sudden, and Luna took a step forward beside him. King and Oracle side by side before the Draconian, the last of the Hexatheon.

“If you would let us, then yes. That is my path. That is the Oracle’s path. If the Accursed agrees… then I would attempt as much.”

The Accursed laughed again. Laughed and laughed until his voice completely broke and was barely more than a hoarse whisper.

“Let them try. I would like to see this story end, and their suggested ending? It would work for how the story went.

* * *

“No matter the outcome, the people frozen in place will get released.”

That was just about the only promise that Bahamut made as they retreated to go over the plan.

Niflheim was in shambles. The emperor was dead, the crystal back in the hands of the Lucian king. Machinery all over the place was sparking and useless, the MTs were broken down just as the rest of that. Verstael Besithia was the only person in the empire who held full control over the MT project and the machinery involved in it. According to Ardyn he had been able to send his department not within Zegnautus Keep after the man. He was to be apprehended and executed for high treason. Ardyn had noted with a crooked grin that perhaps this was the only good thing about having had the empire in his hand like a chess piece ready to be discarded.

Further up the walkway the Glaives were talking to the Crownsguard and their king. It was bittersweet at best to see that happening – but Luna was truly the odd one out. Ardyn had said he needed her for a moment anyway.

“They will lose your powers, won’t they?”

“I cannot say. For all we know your approach to the situation might bring magic back to Eos. Of course, the daemonic side will vanish, whether on its own or by your own hands matters little. That should be your first priority, after all.”

Luna stared down the walkway. It looked like Nyx and Gladiolus were finally talking the situation out. At least it looked like that when they shook hands. She was so fixed on the situation up ahead that she almost missed Ardyn putting a hand on her shoulder.

“What are you--”

“Blessed stars of life and light, deliver us from darkness’ blight.”

It was a prayer, one that she had heard hundreds and millions of times. One that she had said herself hundreds of times as the healed the Scourge. Familiar, comforting words – words that always reminded her of her mother, of her own duty that would inevitably come to pass. That was the power granted to Oracles, the power to purge the Scourge. But it was ancient, more ancient than the powers of the Oracles were.

She turned her head.

There was no familiar golden glow. No light whatsoever.

Ardyn wasn’t an Oracle.

“Those words… Why?” She could have asked him why he recited a prayer that was ever turned to the very gods that had but refused to seek an easier solution than mortal sacrifices.

He removed his hand and crossed his arms. Up ahead Noctis was holding onto Ignis’ arm and played faux-offended in response to something Crowe had said.

“Simple nostalgia, I would say.” He looked at the people up ahead before waving a hand through the air. “Consider your blessings, even if given by gods that will no longer heed you. Your true potential yet lies buried within. The Oracle’s greatest strength is her greatest weakness – you heal with heart rather than tapping into your own potential. For the job that Noctis and you agreed on, you will have to learn how to heal without giving a piece of yourself up; as things stand you are the only one who can truly expunge what will be left.”

Ardyn had mentioned that before. Said that her true power remained untapped and that perhaps one day she would have to use it; it made it sound as if he had known all along. “Say, I have… a question.”

He hummed lightly, a sound she had never heard before. His voice was still hoarse and quiet, but it was evident that he was more than pleased with these events. “Ask away.”

“Have you truly never considered this path of action?”

For a moment she wished she were standing on top the Citadel again. In Tenebrae. At Cape Caem. Anywhere but this dimly lit room with the crystal and the Draconian waiting behind her. Perhaps on a roof in Lestallum. Anywhere the wind blew, where she could feel that Eos was a living being just as much as she was. But she was here, in this sterile, quiet place. Her companions up ahead were discussing how to move forward and Luna herself remained behind to talk to the Accursed. The very creature her upbringing had painted as something that did not have human wit. Something that lacked intelligence and acted on instinct alone – not the Chancellor of Niflheim.

“You are more intelligent than you give yourself credit for, Lunafreya.” He rolled his eyes with a grin. “But alas, I have to disappoint. Izunia’s little descendant had a point. It was too simple to think of; and driven by the intense desire to _screw over_ the prophecy I never stopped to consider. Even now I want to wrap my hands around his neck while his back is turned and _choke him_ in a last attempt to defy the gods. But no. I have not considered this path of action – I was as much a slave to prophecy as you were. Where did the path diverge? How did it lead to this?”

He let out a soft laugh, soft enough that she nearly missed it. It was a far cry from the man who had emptied a cup of mostly sugar with some coffee in it without breaking eye contact with Nyx in Lestallum.

“However much work it is, I will do my duty.”

“I expect naught less from the Oracle who ordered a harmless and unarmed man shot in the afternoon sun.”

He was far from a harmless and unarmed man even now as he waved his hand and turned around. Luna watched him saunter back to the crystal, back to the Draconian.

She caught the glint of the Ring of the Lucii on his finger as he walked, and she started walking towards her companions with an amused snort.

* * *

“You’re leaving, then?”

The sunlight filtered into the room through the thin white curtains. The windows were open and the soft summer breeze made the thin fabric move. Outside the trees rustled as Luna kneeled in the Tenebraen throne room.

She did not look like the Oracle, not like the princess of this country. She still held herself differently than common people, but her time in the field had changed her just as much as it had changed her destiny.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Are you absolutely sure that you rested enough to recover from your latest--”

She looked up and raised a hand. Anywhere else in the world this would have been a grave offense, and even in the modern days it remained a breach of royal protocol.

“I’ll be fine, Ravus.”

Her brother on the throne that had always been rightfully his. He had almost refused it after he had woken from the crystalline spell of stillness only to see his sister before him. He had vehemently disagreed, said that she had done all the work. The throne was hers, it was ever the seat of the Oracle before anything else. But Luna had refused time and time again, said that she did not know how to rule a country. Even if he taught her everything he had learned it would leave Tenebrae without a ruler for the most part, because her duty was to travel the world still. That was the divine decree that had been spoken over her.

Her own blessing, her own curse.

She was finally free to leave and travel as she saw fit – but it was not a pleasurable trip around Eos. She had her duty, and she would see it fulfilled. Ancient Sol sins were going to get buried at last and the next generation of Eos would be able to live without the constant dreadful reminder of what had transpired in the past. It was her duty as final Oracle to lay the past to rest.

Just as it was Ravus’ duty to take care of Tenebrae. He was a fine king, all things considered. People had complained about him at first. They, too, wanted Luna on this throne. Wanted her to marry Noctis just as the treaty had demanded it. They wanted Lucis and Tenebrae to join together despite the entire ruling council of Lucis being in shambles, despite there being no empire to fight against now that everything there had also fallen apart. Broken countries. But no broken people.

Which was why Luna had publicly addressed the complaints, and told her story just before her previous travels. The story of how the gods found a way around the sacrifice, how it was her duty to travel still until Eos was freed from the chains of history. How Ravus was better for Tenebrae than she would ever be.

And the people let her go. They accepted Ravus despite his own shortcomings, despite everything.

The fires of that day seemed so far away now as she watched the curtains blow softly as she got up.

“If anything feels off, I will immediately seek rest. Tenebrae, Lucis, Accordo, Niflheim. Wherever the winds take me.”

She heard a shuffle behind her as Nyx and Crowe also got up.

Their borrowed magic had vanished together with the Accursed. Whatever had taken place at the gates to the Beyond Luna did not know. She would not learn of it until the day it was her time to pass through it, but she knew for a fact that the Source had vanished. The simplest solution that none of the gods had thought of.

Sometimes in her dreams she still saw fire. Still heard its crackle as it ate through whatever place she was in. But sometimes she leaned in and listened to the voice of the fire. Just once she had heard it properly, the words that the Infernian spoke. How he considered her and Noctis’ actions daring enough to loosen his grip on Ardyn for long enough.

Niflheim had fallen into chaos once they realised that the emperor had died. They found Besithia dead in his labs. And the chancellor had gone missing, not a single trace of him remaining. The country had fallen apart before Noctis returned to the streets of Insomnia with what remained of the Crownsguard and the Kingsglaive as well as both Nox Fleurets and a single Niff mercenary band. By the time Noctis had officially ascended the throne and declared Lucis independent again Niflheim had been consumed by the fires of civil war.

Half a year was enough to see that war begin and end.

Ravus shot her a look that she couldn’t quite read. But after a moment he closed his eyes with an amused sigh and he shook his head.

“That’s… good enough for me. Take care of yourself.” He then looked at Nyx and Crowe behind her. “Nyx Ulric, Crowe Altius… Lunafreya Nox Fleuret. You know your duties. Tenebrae will ever await your return.”

With that they were officially dismissed. Nyx and Crowe bowed before Ravus once more and then followed Luna.

It was spring. The air was still crisp and fresh, but the flowers and the sun seemed to be holding a contest about which could be brighter. Luna noted a splatter of wild sylleblossoms growing on a nearby hill, their deep blue standing out amongst the white flowers of the surrounding orchard. She stretched once they left Fenestala Manor, the gardeners greeting the three of them as they left.

“So, what’s the plan, princess?” Crowe had taken one of her hands as she too looked at the blooming trees and flowers all around. “Niflheim ought to be safe.”

“Yeah, and it’s cold. We’ve also been there last trip just in case you forgot.”

Luna laughed as he grabbed Nyx’s hand with her free one after he muttered his complaints. She yanked him forwards and the three of them walked down the path that led to the train station.

“I was thinking that perhaps we ought to visit Lucis. Galahd, specifically.”

“Oh?”

“Ah?”

Both former Glaives looked at her as she beamed at them. “Libertus invited me. As did you two several times, but we’ve been too busy. I’m fairly certain that the gods will let us enjoy a trip to your home; and besides, it’s one of the places I haven’t combed over yet. Better to learn the lay of the land so I can take care of Scourge spots.”

Noctis’ theory had proven correctly. Without the Source active the Scourge did not spread faster than she could heal it. Nights became safer to travel now that there were hunters specifically permitted to use the king’s magic for the sole purpose of destroying daemons. Luna healed the people. Noctis kept them safe from those that had already turned.

They likely wouldn’t be done with this until very late in their lives. They would have to dedicate their time and energy to this task, this divine law that they had solemnly sworn to uphold before the crystal in Lucis. Five of the Six had lost their physical forms. The sixth rested, waiting until the day the other five regained theirs.

That which could eternal lie would remain still until its time came. But Luna, hand-in-hand with Nyx and Crowe, was more than happy to spend the rest of her days travelling Eos and making certain that the sins of the parents did not pass on to become the sins of the children.

“I’ll catch you at the train station!”

“Oi, princess! That’s… Don’t stand there like that, Nyx, catch her!”

Laughter in the hills of Tenebrae, just as it once rang through the forests surrounding Fenestala Manor years in the past. No prophecies breathing down her neck as she wrote letters to Lucis. No Messengers making certain she did not stray from the given path. No Accursed who bemusedly stared at her as she strayed. No deities waiting for her to die in the line of duty.

Only Eos waited for her, Nyx and Crowe now.


End file.
